LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

01  FT  OK 

Y.  M,  C.  A.  OF  U.  C. 

Accession  Class 


GEORGE  :  WELLS  •  ARMES 

MEMORIAL  LIBRARY   *  *  * 
ST1LE5  HALL.    .BERKELEY 


THE 


WORK  OF  CHRIST; 


OE, 


THE  ATONEMENT 


CONSIDERED    IN   ITS   INFLUENCE   UPON  THE 
INTELLIGENT  UNIVERSE. 


ENOCH  M.  MAKYIN,  D.  D., 

ONE   OF  THE  BISHOPS    O/Vffil   M.  E.   CHURCH,   SOUTH. 


ST.   LOUIS: 

P.  M.  PINCELA-RDf  PRINTER,  STEREOTYPER  &  BINDER. 
1868. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1867,  by 

P.  M.  PINCKARD, 

In  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States 
for  the  Eastern  District  of  Missouri. 


PREFACE. 


The  philosophy  of  Prefaces  is  very  simple.  An 
author  is  profoundly  interested  in  his  own  book.  The 
thought  that  is  in  it  may  be  very  meagre  and  very 
vapid,  but  it  is  not  so  to  him.  Every  book,  I  suppose, 
is  the  result  of  one  of  two  processes.  Either  the  thought 
struggles  in  the  man  for  deliverance,  or  the  man  strug- 
gles after  some  thought  that  he  may  make  a  book.  In 
the  first  case  he  is  interested  in  his  readers  through  the 
thought ;  in  the  other  there  is  a  garrulous  interest — 
the  enjoyment  of  being  heard.  In  both  the  book  has 
a  history  which  no  one  knows  but  himself— -something 
that  the  reader  ought  by  all  means  to  be  made  aware 
of.  Of  course  the  reader  is  going  to  be  as  much  inter- 
ested in  the  book  as  he  is  himself.  Any  suspicion  to 
the  contrary  would  disparage  the  reader,  and  the  gen- 
erous author  will  be  guilty  of  no  such  rudeness  as  that. 
Is  it  not  in  human  nature  to  desire  some  account  of  all 
those  things  which  interest  us  ? 

At  any  rate,  it  is  in  human  nature  to  give  some  ex- 
planation of  one's  own  work.  The  very  intelligent 
and  interested  reader  must  pause  a  moment  upon  open- 
ing the  book.  The  author  feels  confidential  with  him 
just  at  this  interesting  moment.  The  man  is  going  to 


101781 


PREFACE. 

read  this  book — he  is  evidently  a  man  that  deserves  a 
little  consideration.  He  must  be  told  some  things  that 
will  help  him  in  the  reading,  or  that  will  help  the 
book  in  his  estimation ;  or,  at  any  rate,  he  must  hear 
something  that  will  prepossess  him  with  the  author  of 
the  book. 

I  have  •  your  ear  now  fairly,  my  reader,  and  could 
entertain  myself  greatly  by  a  long  prefatory  chat  with 
you.  Not  that  there  is  anything  very  special  about 
this  book.  There  is  about  as  little  of  history,  I  imag- 
ine, connected  with  it  as  with  any  book  that  ever 
came  into  existence.  The  most  remarkable  fact  in  the 
case  is,  the  absence  of  any  "pains  of  parturition." 

The  thought  that  is  in  it  has  given  me  profounder 
satisfaction  than  any  other  of  a  speculative  character 
that  I  have  ever  conceived.  I  began  to  write  about  it 
;ust  from  the  mere  pleasure  I  had  in  employing  my 
mind  upon  it.  As  I  proceeded,  I  must  plead  guilty  to 
a  growing  desire  that  it  might  be  published. 

But  much  as- 1  could  say,  and  well  disposed  as  I  am 
to  communicate  just  now,  I  will  not  abuse  your  confi- 
dence. Yet  there  is  one  other  statement  that  I  would 
make.  The  writing  of  this  little  book  has  been  a  means 
of  grace  to  me.  What  the  thought  may  be  to  others  I 
know  not ;  in  me  it  has  been  a  living  power.  I  con- 
template Christ  and  His  work,  and  worship  God  with 
a  deeper  joy. 


CHAPTER   I. 


SECTION    I  . 

Why  Should  there  be  Suffering  ? 

The  existence  of  evil  has  been  the  grand 
puzzle  of  the  world.  The  strongest  and  sub- 
tlest minds  have  labored  at  it  in  vain.  Philos- 
ophy is  painfully  conscious  of  its  own  failure 
here.  The  most  dreadful  suffering  is  under- 
gone by  man  in  all  places  over  the  earth. 
Why  should  this  be  ?  Is  there  a  God  looking 
down  upon  it  all  ?  If  so,  is  he  impotent  or 
malignant  that  he  should  allow  it'?  What 
horrible  doubts  these  are?  Who  shall  lay 
them  ? 

There  seems  to  be  an  almost  universal  dis- 
position to  account  for  the  existence  of  suf- 
fering by  the  fact  of  sin.  There  is  a  per- 


6  THE    GREAT   MYSTERY. 

ception  of  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect 
between  these  two  things.  The  point  of  con- 
nection may  not  be  very  patent,  albeit  men 
feel,  perhaps,  more  fully  than  they  see  that 
there  is  such  a  connection.  In  this,  doubtless, 
we  shall  find  the  germ  of  most  precious  truth 
as  we  proceed.  Yet  will  it  not  answer  all 
questions  at  once,  for  there  is  a  question  back 
of  this  which  must  first  be  met, 

SECTION    II  . 

Why  Should  there  be  Sin  f 
Could  not  God  make  a  world  without  sin — 
one  that  should  not  be  liable  to  sin  ?  If  he 
could,  then  why  was  it  not  so  done  ?  Or  if 
he  could  not,  then  why  make  any  world  at  all  ? 
Would  it  not  be  better  that  there  should  be  no 
world  than  a  wicked  one  that  must  suffer  so  ? 
These  questions  have  been  in  the  human  heart, 
and  often  upon  human  lips,  in  all  the  past 
ages.  Men  will  ask  them.  They  can  not 
be  overlooked. 

I  shall  deal  briefly  with  these  problems,  so 


THE   GREAT    MYSTERY.  7 

far  as  any  direct  effort  to  solve  them  is  con- 
cerned. In  fact,  the  investigation  presented 
in  Chapter  IE  is  intended  merely  to  prepare 
the  way  for  what  I  shall  offer  at  last  as  afford- 
ing the  best  and  only  satisfactory  solution. 

SECTION    III  . 

Cui  Bono  ? 

After  all  that  has  been  written,  there  are 
perplexities  remaining  to  such  minds  as  will 
occupy  themselves  more  with  unattainable  ob- 
jects than  with  obvious  vital  truths.  These, 
perhaps,  nothing  will  satisfy.  There  is  a  class 
of  minds,  however,  that  will,  by  such  investi- 
gation, be  led  to  broader  and  happier  views, 
if  not  to  a  more  settled  conviction  of  truth. 

And  the  Christian  teacher  can  not  wholly 
ignore  speculation  upon  these  topics.  They 
have  been  so  obtrusively  thrust  upon  the  world 
for  skeptical  purposes  that  it  is  incumbeni 
upon  the  believer  in  the  Christian  faith  to  show 
that  the  truth,  even  in  these  inquiries,  ision 
the  side  of  our  holy  religion.  It  is  a  maxim 


8  THE   GREAT   MYSTERY. 

at  once  and  universally  recognized  as  true, 
that  no  truth  of  any  one  class  can  clash  with 
any  truth  of  another  class.  The  Christian, 
therefore,  can  not  stand  back  and  say  to  any 
other  man,  "  your  truth  contradicts  my  creed, 
but  still  I  hold  it."  He  must,  on  the  con- 
trary, first  examine  whether  it  be  truth  that  is 
paraded  against  his  faith  ;  and  if  it  be  un- 
questionable truth,  then  he  must  see  whether 
the  alleged  conflict  between  it  and  his  creed 
exists. 

My  observation  is,  that  most,  if  not  all, 
the  arguments  adduced  from  the  condition  of 
the  world  against  the  Christian  religion  bear 
as  hard  against  any  notion  of  divine  govern- 
ment as  against  the  Christian  theory.  They 
are  not  arguments,  specifically,  against  Chris- 
tian revelation  by  any  means,  but  against  the 
justice  and  beneficence  of  the  Creator ;  and 
the  defense  of  our  faith  loses  an  important 
advantage  when  it  unwittingly  attacks  them, 
as  if  they  had  some  special  pertinence  when 
directed  against  itself. 


THE   GREAT   MYSTERY.  9 

It  has  long  been  my  conviction,  that  the 
unhappy  moral  and  physical  condition  of  our 
world  is  more  satisfactorily  accounted  for  by  . 
the  theory  of  1he  fall  and  the  redemption 
than  by  any  other  hypothesis  whatever.  My 
reason  is  satisfied  with  it  as  solving  all  the 
harrassing  difficulties  which  beset  the  subject. 
In  the  light  of  this  theory  I  can  see  that  God 
is  just  and  beneficent,  though  there  is  sin  and 
misery  among  men.  3  see  that  I  have  nothing 
to  be  afraid^  of'  but  myself.  It  narrows  my 
apprehensions,  so  far  as  my  destiny  is  con- 
cerned, down  to  this  point.  I  see  that  this 
dreadful  condition  of  things  is  not  from  God, 
and  that  the  malign  source  of  it  is  not  to  be 
sought  outside  of  myself  and  the  other  suf- 
ferers. More  than  that,  I  see  that  the  Infi- 
nite Resources  are  taxed  for  a  remedy  ;  that 
the  remedy  is  provided — that  it  is  adequate. 
All  this,  and  much  more,  I  see  by  the  light  of 
the  Atonement. 

All  this  is  true  when  you  consider  the  ehris- 


10  THE   GREAT   MYSTERY. 

tian  creed  in  the  lowest  and  narrowest  view  of 
it.  But  may  there  not  be  a  broader  signifi- 
cance than  that  which  is  generally  perceived 
in  the  great  Atonement  —  a  meaning  which 
shall  flood  the  universe  with  light  ? 

I  trust  I  shall  be  guilty  of  no  adventurous 
speculation,  that  will  lightly  disregard  the 
checks  of  revealed  truth.  I  distrust  myself 
too  profoundly  for  that.  But  when  rational 
conjecture  is  in  harmony  with  the  Bible  it  need 
not  be  overtimid,  nor  the  imagination  itself 
restrain  its  wing  if  it  but  keep  within  the  em- 
pyrean of  revelation.  But  I  trust  the  matter 
of  the  following  pages  will  show  a  fiimer 
basis  than  mere  conjecture  ;  and  it  is  submit- 
tedun  the  hope,  chiefly,  that  young  and  ardent 
minds,  perplexed  and  disturbed  by  questions 
of  life  and  destiny,  may  find*  in  it  a  clue  to 
some,  at  least,  of  the  objects  of  their  inquiry. 


CHAPTER   II. 


SECTION    I. 

Could  not  God  have  made  a  World  not  liable 
to  Sinf 

I  have  already  promised  brevity  in  the 
direct  investigation  of  the  questions  con- 
nected with  the  existence  of  Evil,  but  a  com- 
prehensive presentation  of  the  matter  is  neces- 
sary to  introduce  the  more  important  topic 
which  it  is  my  object  to  submit. 

We  must  speak  reverently  and  with  humil- 
ity when  we  talk  about  what  God  could  or 
could  not  do.  Men  sometimes  draw  infer- 
ences from  the  Divine  Omnipotence  which  are 
by  no  means  sequences  of  the  fact.  Mr. 
Bledsoe,  in  the  "  Theodicy,"  has  put  this 
matter  in  a  very  clear  light.  Some  things 
are  not  objects  of  power.  There  has  been  by 
far  too  much  flippant  talking  upon  this  matter, 


12     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

and  too  little  profound,  earnest  Chinking.  It 
is  reaching  a  conclusion  with  too  much  facil- 
ity to  say  that  God  could  have  made  man  so 
as  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  sin.  It  is  very 
convenient,  no  doubt,  to  say  such  things,  but 
he  who  says  them  may,  perhaps,  not  know 
whereof  he  affirms.  Let  us  tread  this  ground 
warily.  We  may  speak  unadvisedly  with  our 
lips,  even  when  we  intend  thereby  to  glorify 
the  power  of  God.  Our  shallow  speech, 
though  well  intentioned,  may  be  found  to  be 
derogatory  of  that  power  itself.  We  must  be 
cautious,  lest  in  an  attempt  to  honor  God  we 
may  be  found  to  dishonor  Him. 

SECTION    II. 

Limit  of  Power. 

We  are  accustomed  to  say  that  God's  power 
has  no  limit,  and  to  infer  that,  therefore,  He 
could  have  made  man  impeccable.  Is  it  so  ? 
Is  it  within  the  sphere  of  power  to  violate 
essential  truth?  Can  Omnipotence  counter- 
work geometry  ?  Can  God  lie  ?  No  ! 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     13 

Within  its  sphere  Omnipotence  can  work 
inimitably ;  outside  of  that  it  can  do  nothing. 

The  fact  of  the  omnipotence  of  the  Creator  is 

• 

not  a  sufficient  warrant  for  all  sorts  of  gro- 
tesque conjectures  as  to  what  He  might  have 
done.  If  we  must  reason  upon  such  matters, 
let  us  get  our  premises  from  the  whole  nature 
of  God,  so  far  as  we  may  be  able  to  compre- 
hend it,  and  from  the  character  of  work  we 
are  contemplating.  Whether  this  or  that  may 
be  done  by  the  Almighty,  depends  first  upon 
the  congruity  of  the  act  with  His  own  nature, 
and  secondly,  upon  all  the  facts  involved  in 
the  supposed  act.  The  supposed  object  of 
creative  power  may  be  such  as  involves  essen- 
tial impossibilities,  and  these  impossibilities 
may  be  either  of  a  physical  or  moral  charac- 
ter. For  moral  dereliction  is  as  impossible 
to  God  as  physical  absurdity  is.  The  ques- 
tions involved  in  this  species  of  speculation, 
then,  are  so  numerous  and  complex  and  subtle 
that  it  is  no  wonder  if  men  of  hasty  and  im- 


14     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

patient  temper  should  make  conclusions  before 
they  have  seen  half  the  premises,  or  even  if 
sober  thinkers  should  produce  intellectual  abor- 
tions. Let  ua  be  humble  and  diffident,  and 
pray  God  that  we  may  not  do  the  same. 

SECTION    III  . 

The   Creator. 

Let  me  say  reverently  what  my  argument 
requires  to  be  said  of  the  Creator  :  "  Such 
knowledge  is  too  high  for  me !"  Yet  surely 
we  have  some  positive  knowledge  of  Him. 
May  we  use  it  wisely ! 

Infinite,  essential  Being !  Source  of  all 
subordinate  existence !  In  Him  is  all  perfec- 
tion realized.  The  Infinite  Power,  the  Infin- 
ite Wisdom,  the  Infinite  Love  I  He  can  do 
no  wrong. 

Men  talk  about  the  Divine  freedom.  Do 
they  understand  themselves  ?  Doubtless  God 
is  free.  Yet  He  can  do  no  wrong.  In  His 
work  He  can  not  transcend  the  boundary  of 
right  and  truth.  The  idea  of  a  God  that 


MAN — PREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     15 

might  do  wrong  is  monstrous.  He  is  free, 
but  He  is  not  capricious.  His  freedom  is  in 
the  perfect  poise  of  His  attributes — the  infal- 
lible adjustment  of  the  true,  the  right  and  the 
good.  There  is  no  such  freedom  as  puts  char- 
acter at  hazard. 

Doubtless  He  is  amenable  to  no  law  above 
Himself ,  for  the  law  has  its  highest  expression 
in  Himself.  His  is,. therefore,  no  freedom  of 
wayward  impulses,  but  of  a  holy  nature  whose 
very  essence  is  rightness.  We  have,  there- 
fore, no  dread  of  a  heedless,  headlong  power 
that  may  sometimes  choose  to  undo  all  He  once 
chose  to  do.  "  He  doeth  all  things  weH." 

What  He  wills  and  does  is,  therefore,  "  ever 
right,  ever  the  best."  He  made  our  world, 
and  then  inspecting  His  own  work  with  infin- 
ite satisfaction,  said :  "It  is  very  good." 
And  yet  man  was  -liable  to  sin,  and  did  sin. 
We  can  scarcely  suppose,  in  an  abstract  view 
of  the  case,  that  it  was  best  that  man  should 
be  liable  to  sin.  Should  we  not  rather  say 


16     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

that  if  he  could  have  been  created  without 
this  liability,  it  would  have  been  better? — 
I  choose  rather  to  suggest  than  dogmatize 
here.  We  may  say  that,  in  view  of  all  the 
facts  involved,  God  saw  it  was  best  to  do  as 
He  did.  Doubtless.  But  that  does  not  untie 
the  knot.  Sin  is  not  best — it  is  not  good  in 
any  degree.  It  is  evil,  and  only  evil  continu- 
ally, in  its  nature  and  results.  God  may  have 
power  and  prerogative  to  bring  good  out  of 
its  consequences  ;  but  in  itself  is  no  good 
thing,  and  out  of  it,  by  its  own  force,  can 
come  no  good  thing.  If  man  could  have  been 
created  free  from  the  possibility  of  sinning, 
may  we  not  venture  to  say,  in  the  light  of 
God's  character,  it  would  certainly  have  been 
so  done  ? 

SECTION    IV. 

What  is  Sin  f 

"  Sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law." 
Let  it  be  remembered  that  sin  is  an  act. 
Men  seem  sometimes  to  lose  sight  of  this,  and 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     17 

to  speak  of  sin  as  something  that  Exists.  It 
is  not  a  substance ,  but  an  act;  not  a  thing 
existing,  but  a  thing  done.  It  is  an  act 
against  God's  law,  and  so,  consequently, 
against  himself. 

It  is  not  only  an  act,  but  a  voluntary 
act.  Brightness  and  wrongness,  morally,  be- 
long only  to  this  class  of  acts.  For  right 
and  wrong,  morally,  imply  personal  charac- 
ter, and  to  this  volition  is  necessary.  In  other 
words,  the  act  must  proceed  from  the  agent, 
and  originate  with  him,  to  be  his  act ;  and 
if  it  be  not  his,  it  can  not  affect  his  charac- 
ter. Moral  right  and  wrong  imply  something 
more  than  conformity  or  non- conformity  to  a 
a  rule- -that  is,  that  the  conformity  or  non- 
conformity be  caused  by  the  subject  of  it, 
and  not  produced  by  any  other  agency. 
There  is  mechanical  Tightness  in  a  column 
cunningly  adapted  to  its  uses  of  support  and 
ornament,  and  so  it  has  a  certain  character, 

and  in  its  way  is  good.     But  it  was  made  so, 
B 


18     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN;  REDEEMED. 

and  had  no  hand  in  its  own  carvings  and  ad- 
justments, and  consequently  has  no  moral 
character.  It  obeys  no  law  of  its  own  choice 
and  motion,  and  though  it  answers  its  ends 
well,  we  can  not  think  of  it  as  we  do  of  a  man 
who/ree/y  conforms  himself  to  the  law  that 
is  given  him.  If  the  column  should  fall  and 
precipitate  the  edifice  it  supports  upon  a  thou- 
sand heads,  no  one  would  think  of  blaming  it, 
for  it  has  no  choice,  but  falls  perforce,  under 
the  power  of  external  agencies.  No  man 
curses  the  timber,  how  fatal  soever  the  conse- 
quences of  the  fall.  Not  so  when  a  man  falls. 
His  fall  is  from  himself —his  own  thought,  and 
choice,  and  act. 

Or  if  in  any  case  a  man's  action  is  invol- 
untary, he  is  free  from  blame.  This  fact 
commands  universal  belief.  It  is  an  axiom 
that  there  can  be  no  sin  where  there  is  no 
volition. 

I  do  not  say  that  there  is  no  sinfulness 
except  in  mere  action.  Upon  the  sinful  act 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     19 

there  supervenes  a  retro-action,  which  induces 
a  sinful  state.  This  is  depravity.  The 
understanding,  affections,  appetites,  desires, 
all  become  corrupted. 

Sin,  then,  is  voluntary  wrong  action, 
which  also  results  in  a  sinful  state  of  the 
mind  and  heart,  which  is  depravity. 

Let  it  not  be  overlooked  that  the  inquiry 
now  is,  could  God  have  made  man  free  from 
the  liability  to  sin  ?  We  are,  therefore,  con- 
templating sin  in  the  individual.  At  this 
point  we  must  not  be  betrayed  into  perplexi- 
ties arising  out  of  complications  which  belong 
to  another  part  of  the  subject.  All  investiga- 
tion, to  be  satisfactory,  must  exclude,  peremp- 
torily, such  matter  as  may  not  be  pertinent. 
It  is  not  always  easy  to  do  this.  Facts  having 
a  natural  connection  with  the  topic  under  dis- 
cussion solicit  attention,  but  having  no  bear- 
ing upon  the  particular  aspect  of  the  topic 
which  forms  the  vital  question  in  the  argu- 
ment, they  tend  only  to  betray  ns  into  conjV 


20     MAN — FREE;  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

sion  of  ideas,  which  darkens  the  investigation. 
So  here  the  very  word  depravity  suggests  the 
fallen  condition  of  our  race,  and  the  whole 
matter  of  inherited  evil.  But  perspicuity  re- 
quires its  adjournment  to  another  point  in  the 
discussion.  We  shall  better  understand  our- 
selves if  we  confine  our  attention  at  this  point 
to  the  individual,  and  if  you  please,  the  first 
sinner.  Inherited  depravity  shall  have  due 
attention  in  its  own  proper  place. 

Sin  in  the  individual  is  an  act— it  is  his 
act.  It  is  his,  because  it  originates  with  and 
proceeds  from  himself.  He  conceives  it,  wills 
it,  does  it.  It  proceeds  from  his  person,  and 
can  be  traced  to  no  other  source.  Otherwise 
it  would  not  be  his  sin. 

SECTION  v. 
Personal  B  eing . 

To  appreciate  adequately  the  truth  set  forth 
in  the  preceding  section,  a  man  must  realize 
his  own  separate  being.  I  am.  I.  That 
one  letter  is  to  me  the  most  important  word 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     21 

that  was  ever  uttered.  It  means  every  thing 
for  me.  Blot  it  out,  and  that  which  it  signi- 
fies with  it,  and  to  me  there  is  nothing  left — 
no  God,  no  Universe,  nor  light,  nor  darkness, 
nor  sound— nothing. 

What  is  this  that  is  uttered  when  a  man 
pronounces  that  word—I  ?  Depend  upon  it,  it 
is  no  phantom- -no  shadowy,  unreal  thing.  It 
is  a  vital  substance.  It  is  a  Life,  which, 
though  related  in  some  way  to  all  other  life, 
yet  stands  out  from  all  other- -separate,  alone. 
At  no  point  does  it  merge  into  another  thing. 
Self.  The  word  has  a  meaning—what  a  mean- 
ing !  In  it  there  are  perception,  desire, 
thought,  feeling.  Pregnant  words,  every  one 
of  them.  Jin  acting  se//— the  action  volun- 
tary !  The  self  is  fully  realized  in  this  last 
statement.  Self-impelled.  It  has  objects  to 
pursue,  hopes  to  cherish,  fears  to  combat.  It 
has  its  own  loves,  and  hatreds,  and  struggles. 
It  has  a  destiny ! 

Its  separateness  from  all  other  things  is 


22     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

"well  defined  at  every  point.  Through  what- 
ever changes  the  self  may  pass,  there  is  ever- 
more the  conscious  I,  never  lost  and  never 
confounded  with  other  things.  All  other 
things  are  marked  off  from  it  in  an  objective 
relation.  It  stands  out,  over  against  all  other 
things,  in  friendly  or  unfriendly  relations  to- 
ward them,  to  play  its  own  part  and  accom- 
plish its  own  purpose. 

The  man  is  not  to  be  lost,  in  the  personal 
significance  of  his  nature,  by  being  considered 
as  simply  a  portion  of  the  universe.  Such, 
indeed,  he  is,  yet  in  no  sense  that  modifies  the 
separateness  and  completeness  of  individual 
being.  He  is  a  person  by  himself,  howsoever 
related  to  other  persons  and  things.  Nor  is 
he  an  infinitessimal  part  of  God,  taking  shape 
in  time  and  space.  He  is  just  himself.  He 
is  just  what  the  common  man  means  when  he 
says  I.  And  not  even  the  metaphysician, 
bewildering  and  blinding  himself  in  the  haze 
and  whirl  of  Pantheistic  sophistries,  can  lose 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     23 

the  consciousness  of  the  self  that  he  is.  Not 
all  the  confusion  of  what  he  sees,  and  half 
sees,  and  scarcely  sees  at  all,  and  imagines 
that  he  sees,  not  all  the  din  and  babel  of  the 
articulate  and  inarticulate  voices  that  he  hears; 
not  all  his  own  anxiety  to  lose  and  hide  him- 
self in  some  outer  or  some  higher  being  can 
hush  the  I  that  is  forever  pronouncing  itself 
in  him  and  by  him. 

The  very  cognizance  that  he  takes  of  other 
things  testifies  his  own  separate  being.  They 
are  not  of  him.  They  are  outside,  to  him. 
They  range  themselves  around  him,  some 
more  remote,  some  nearer,  some  impinging 
upon  his  very  substance ;  but  the  line  between 
him  and  them  is  never  obliterated,  never  in- 
distinct. They  impress  in  many  ways  the 
consciousness  of  the  self,  but  are  never  con- 
founded with  it. 

Amid  all  the  magnitudes,  and  forces,  and 
sublimities,  and  portents  of  the  universe — 
amid  all  the  contests,  and  vexations,  and  sym- 


24     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

pathies  of  local  relationship — under  the  un- 
approachable heavens  and  on  the  mysterious 
earth,  in  the  sight  of  men,  angels  arid  God, 
there  he  stands,  by  himself  and  for  himself, 
to  do,  to  enjoy,  to  suffer  what  he  may  or 
must.  It  is  a  grand  spectacle,  even  in  the 
eyes  of  God. 

SECTION    VI. 

Volition. 

This  separateness  of  individual  being  real- 
izes its  highest  value  in  the  fact  of  volition. 
Vital  and  intelligent  energies,  such  as  man  is 
endowed  with,  are  self -guided.  I  respectfully 
submit  that  freedom  means  this,  or  it  means 
nothing.  A  man's  decisions  and  actions  are 
from  himself  and  of  himself. 

I  am  not  unaware  of  the  metaphysical  per- 
plexities that  have  been  raised  upon  this  sub- 
ject, nor  is  it  my  purpose  at  all  to  produce  an 
exhaustive  treatise  upon  the  issues  involved. 
I  shall  aim  only  to  get  at  the  heart  of  the 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     25 

matter,  and  leave  it  to  the  good  sense  of  the 
reader. 

The  controversy  in  reference  to  the  will  is 
an  old  one,  and  has  been  managed  with  great 
dexterity  on  both  sides.  It  is  a  rare  thing 
now  for  any  one  to  deny  the  fact  of  man's 
freedom.  There  are  some,  however,  whose 
definitions  and  explanations  are  such  as  to 
teach  only  the  absence  of  external  constraint 
in  our  volitions,  while  there  is  something  in 
the  very  nature  of  each  man  that  determines 
inevitably  the  character  of  his  volitions.  The 
man  is  free,  they  tell  us,  when  his  choice  is 
from  himself,  and  we  are  warned  off  from  any 
higher  ground  of  inquiry,  as  if  it  were  un- 
lawful. Now,  the  fatalist  might  admit  all 
that  with  perfect  safety  to  his  own  theory,  if 
you  will  allow  that  each  separate  self  is  so 
constituted  that  a  certain  character  of  voli- 
tions will  be  inevitably  or  necessarily  produced 
by  it.  For  a  man  is  not  free  if  he  is  neces- 
sitated in  his  volitions,  and  it  matters  not  a 


26     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

particle  whether  the  necessity  arises  out  of 
his  own  constitution  or  out  of  external  con- 
straint. In  either  case  the  cause  is  placed 
beyond  himself. 

The  freedom  of  man  is  not  to  be  put  in 
comparison  with  the  freedom  of  the  Creator. 
The  choice  between  good  and  evil  is  not  before 
God.  The  law  is  not  over  God,  but  in  Him. 
It  is  the  expression  of  His  own  nature.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  obedience  or  disobedience 
with  Him.  He  is  the  fountain  of  purity.  It 
were  irreverent  to  think  of  God  as  free  to  do 
evil. 

Not  so  with  the  creature.  He  is  under 
law,  and  the  vital  question  of  freedom  with 
him  is  in  respect  to  his  conduct  toward  God. 
He  may  do  wrong.  The  wrong  volition  is 
from  himself  ;  but  is  he  so  constituted  as  to 
necessitate  volitions  of  this  class  ?  Might 
the  same  self  that  chose  to  do  wrong  choose 
to  do  right  ?  Is  the  choice  not  only  from 
himself,  but  of  himself,  in  such  a  manner 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     27 

that  the  character  of  it  is  determined  by  him, 
and  is  not  the  result  of  a  chain  of  causes 
going  before  ?  If  not,  there  is  no  freedom. 
The  fountain  that  pours  a  stream  out  of  itself, 
though  the  stream  is  from  itself,  is  not  free 
in  the  act,  because  it  must  do  what  it  does. 
The  stream  is  from  the  fountain,  but  it  is  also 
from  something  beyond  the  fountain.  It  is 
of  its  nature  that  this  result  is  produced. 
There  is  no  volition,  no  choice,  for  I  use 
these  words  synonymously.  The  word  volition 
expresses  both  the  origin  of  mental  activities 
and  the  capacity  of  the  mind  to  determine 
the  course  and  character  of  its  own  move- 
ments. It  expresses  freedom  both  from  ex- 
ternal constraint  and  innate  necessity 

Was  there  any  thing  in  the  primary  nature 
of  the  first  man  to  guide  his  fatal  choice  in 
the  transgression  ?  The  wrong  decision  was 
from  himself ;  was  it  also  of  himself  as  his 
free  act  to  which  he  was  determined  by  no 
fatal  bent  of  his  nature  ?  Or  was  his  nature 


28     MAN — FREE;  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

such  that  he  must  decide  and  act  as  he  did  ? 
If  so,  he  was  depraved  before  the  fall.  If 
so,  God  made  him  depraved.  No.  He  was 
not  depraved.  He  was  simply  free !  He 
chose  to  do  wrong,  and  it  would  be  an  ab- 
surdity to  say  he  chose  to  do  so  because  he 
must  have  so  chosen,  The  two  words  are 
not  correlative.  He  could  do  wrong,  and 
did.  There  was  no  fatal  proclivity  to  evil 
beforehand.  If  so,  it  must  have  been  im- 
pressed on  him  by  his  Maker.  But  evil  is 
contrary  to  God's  nature ;  it  is  enmity  to 
God.  God  can  not  counter-work  Himself, 
therefore  He  could  not  impress  evil  upon  man. 

Sin  originated  with  the  creature.  God 
had  no  hand  in  it.  He  never  did  and  never 
can  have  any  thing  to  do  with  it  but  to  repress 
and  punish  it.  It  is  infinitely  abhorrent  to 
Him.  It  is  rebellion  against  His  government. 
But  more  of  this  hereafter. 

Man  was  not  made,  then,  with  a  nature 
that  necessitated  his  sin,  nor  were  influences 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.,     29 

brought  to  bear  that  necessitated  it.  He  was 
free.  To  be  sure  he  was  tempted.  But  the 
first  sinning  creature  was  not  tempted— at 
least  not  from  without.  Nor  can  temptation 
necessitate  compliance.  The  tempter  can  only 
solicit ;  he  can  not  compel.  He  can  present 
motives  to  sin,  but  God  presents  greater  mo- 
tives against  it. 

Even  in  our  present  depraved  condition  we 
are  free,  for  the  agencies  of  grace  so  far 
countervail  our  depraved  inclinations  as  to 
make  repentance  possible,  so  that  he  who 
lives  in  sin  does  so  from  choice,  not  necessity. 

Great  infirmity  of  will,  no  doubt,  super- 
venes upon  the  habitual  indulgence  of  vicious 
propensities.  The  subjects  of  such  indul- 
gence often  desire  earnestly  to  recover  them- 
selves from  its  dominion,  and  fail  to  do  so. 
From  this  fact  some  have  questioned  the 
doctrine  of  freedom,  and  supposed  that  man's 
course  is  constrained  by  his  impulses.  But 
it  is  to  be  observed,  first,  that  in  such  cases 


30    .MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

there  is  an  abnormal  condition  both  of  mind 
and  body,  so  that  they  may  not  be  fairly  cited 
in  the  argument ;  and,  secondly,  even  in  such 
cases  the  man  is  conscious  of  a  latent  power 
of  will  which  he  could  assert,  and  forego  the 
indulgence.  And,  indeed,  this  is  sometimes, 
and  not  unfrequently,  done.  And  this  con- 
sciousness, always  felt,  and  occasionally 
exemplified  in  practice,  is  a  most -conclusive 
proof  of  man's  freedom  in  his  volitions.  If 
in  such  cases  of  degeneracy,  where,  by  a  long 
course  of  evil  practice  the  lower  propensities 
are  developed  to  their  greatest  activity  and 
power,  and  the  will  rendered  infirm  by  dis  • 
use,  it  has  still  the  force  to  overcome,  against 
such  odds,  its  supremacy  must  be  confessed. 
Certainly,  great  power  must  be  allowed  to 
impulses  in  their  effect  on  human  action,  and 
mere  impulse  is  utterly  blind  to  any  question 
of  right  or  wrong.  But  every  man  knows  that 
he  can  resist  any  impulse,  however  strong. 
Or  if  there  are  extreme  cases  of  sudden 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     31 

arousement,  allowing  no  time  for  thought  be- 
tween the  impulse  and  the  act,  and  the  will  is 
overborne  by  the  impetuosity  of  passion,  such 
cases  present  a  speoies  of  momentary  insanity, 
in  which  a  man  can  not  be  held  responsible  ; 
unless,  indeed,  he  is  responsible  for  allowing 
himself  to  be  in  such  a  moral  condition  as 
will  admit  of  so  unhappy  a  phenomenon. 
Between  reason  on  the  one  hand,  and  impulse 
on  the  other ;  between  God  and  law  on  the 
one  hand,  and  appetite  and  passion  on  the 
other,  the  will  sits  arbiter,  and  is  supreme. 
I  have  by  no  means  forgotten  the  fallen 
condition  of  man,  nor  the  declarations  of  the 
apostle  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  Romans, 
"  When  I  would  do  good,  evil  is  present  with 
me  ;"  "  the  good  that  I  would  I  do  not,  and 
the  evil  that  I  would  not  that  do  I."  But, 
certainly,  no  one  will  claim  that  man's  fallen 
condition  is  his  normal  one,  while  even  in  this 
condition  there  is  so  much  power  of  will,  as  I 
have  already  shown,  as  to  prove  its  supremacy. 


32     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

And  as  I  have  before  said,  the  grace  of  God 
has  so  far  restored  the  moral  equilibrium  as 
to  give  us  the  full  power  of  choice  in  the 
reception  or  rejection  of  the  gospel.  And 
upon  that  hinges  the  whole  matter  of  our 
accountability. 

Men  sometimes  give  unfair  tests  of  the 
question.  I  have  been  asked  if  it  is  possi- 
ble for  a  man  to  will  to  inflict  wanton  cruelty 
upon  his  child.  It  is  a  very  rare  thing,  to  be 
sure,  that  the  force  of  the  will  is  carried  to 
such  an  unbridled  extent.  Men  do  not  often 
outrage  at  once  reason,  affection  and  in- 
terest, by  an  erratic  and  wayward  assertion  of 
their  liberty.  Volition  very  quietly  and  uni- 
formly goes  right  where  interest,  feeling  and 
duty  are  all  on  the  same  side.  It  is  only 
where  there  is  some  conflict  that  there  is  any 
occasion  for  choice.  And  yet,  monstrous  and 
unaccountable  cases  do  occur  sometimes, 
proving  the  latent  power  of  will  in  an  appall- 
ing manner.  And  does  not  every  man  feel 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     33 

that  he  has  such  power  ?  He  knows  that  he 
will  not  exert  it,  but  does  he  not  also  know 
that  he  could  ? 

The  presence  of  motives  is  the  condition 
of  the  action  of  will.  Men  decide  in  view 
of  motives.  And  our  responsibility  lies  in 
the  freedom  of  our  choice  between  good  and 
bad  motives.  Otherwise  volition  would  be  a 
blind,  erratic  power,  >nd  could  not  be,  as  it 
is,  the  basis  of  responsibility.  If  all  the 
motives  are  on  one  side,  in  any  given  in- 
stance, therefoie,  volition,  with  great  uni- 
formity, takes  the  course  they  indicate.  But 
where  there  are  conflicting  motives,  some 
urging  to  one  course  and  some  to  the1  op- 
posite, the  man's  freedom  becomes  apparent 
in  deciding  between  them.  Nor  is  there  any 
power  in  the  greatest  of  several  motives  to 
carry  the  will  invariably  against  the  others. 
The  decision  may  be,  and  sometimes  is,  on 
the  side  of  the  weaker  motives. 

Man  is  not  always  free  in  his  actions,  for 

c 


34     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

he  is  often  restrained  by  external  agencies. 
But  the  will,  where*  there  is  any  occasion  of 
choice,  is  always  free,  except  in  abnormal 
mental  states.  And  hence  it  is  that  we  esti- 
mate a  man's  character  more  by  what  we 
believe  to  be  in  him  than  by  his  external  life. 
Whatever  his  course  of  conduct  under  exter 
nal  restraints,  if  we  believe  him  to  be  a  man 
of  vicious  purposes,  we  set  him  down  for  a 
bad  man.  His  character  is  determined  by  his 
volitions. 

Let  it  be  understood  that  by  the  term  Will 
I  mean  a  man's  power  to  select  among  all 
the  various  lines  of  conduct  open  to  him  any 
one  for  himself,  free  from  any  predetermining 
cause  in  himself  or  out  of  himself,  to  neces- 
sitate his  choice  of  the  one  he  does  select  or 
his  rejection  of  another.  The  mind  is  in  no 
sense  constructed  upon  mechanical  principles. 
You  can  not,  as  in  mechanics,  supply  so  much 
power  in  a  given  direction  and  be  certain  of 
the  result.  It  is  true  that  good  influences 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     35 

steadily  brought  to  bear,  especially  in  early 
life,  generally  produce  good  results  upon 
character.  The  will,  as  I  have  before  said, 
is  not  a  mere  wayward  power.  It  acts  in 
view  of  motives,  and  while  motives  are  not 
of  the  nature  of  mechanical  forces,  yet  the 
reason,  judging  of  the  value  of  the  different 
motives,  makes  intelligent  choice  possible. 
Hence  a  certain  degee  of  uniformity  is 
usual  in  individual  action  and  character.  If 
it  were  not  so,  no  government  would  be  possi- 
ble. There  is  some  uniformity  of  results, 
both  from  right  and  wrong  influences.  But 
this  uniformity  is  not  mechanical  precision. 
Far  from  it.  The  will  may  become  wayward, 
and  often  does  so, 

But  where  the  mind  is  in  a  normal  condi- 
tion, the  understanding  clear,  the  affections 
and  appetites  duly  adjusted,  and  all  the  mo- 
tives bear  in  one  direction  with  great 
force,  the  will  rarely,  if  ever,  sets  itself 


36     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

against  them.     We  shall  have  use  for  this  fact 
after  a  while. 

I  have  said,  in  section  four,  that  "  moral 
right  and  wrong  imply  something  more  than 
conformity  or  non- conformity  to  a  rule — that 
the  conformity  or  non -conformity  be  caused 
by  the  subject  of  it,  and  not  prodaced  by  ex- 
ternal agency."  Now  if  a  man's  decision  to 
do  an  act  violating  the  law  is  the  certain  and 
necessary  result  of  some  malign  tendency  of 
liis  nature,  that  tendency  is  the  cause  of  tlie 
act.  That  tendency  itself  must  have  been 
produced  by  some  anterior  cause,  and  in  no 
just  sense,  if  such  be  the  fact,  can  it  be 
traced  to  the  man  as  the  actual  and  responsi- 
ble cause.  But  men  are  free,  without  any 
necessitating  tendency  toward  any  given  class 
of  volitions.  In  this  freedom  is  to  be  found 
the  cause  of  a  man's  actions.  They  belong 
to  him,  not  as  light  belongs  to  the  sun,  or  heat 
to  fire,  or  leaves  to  the  tree,  but  in  a  much 
higher  sense.  They  originate  with  him. 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     37 

The  leaf  upon  the  oak  of  to-day  may  be 
traced  back  to  the  first  oak,  and  so  to  God,  as 
the  final  cause,  for  at  no  point  does  any  free, 
agent  intervene  between  it  and  the  Creator. 

But  between  God  and  man's  act  comes  the 
man  himself— /ree.  His  personal  existence 
was  caused  by  God,  but  that  existence,  being 
free,  is  itself  causative.  His  acts  are  his 
own.  They  originate  with  himself.  So  of 
all  intelligent  beings.  And  wherever  personal 
freedom  is  there  is  causation.  And  where  a 
creature  is  endowed  with  this  high  quality,  he 
is  accountable  to  the  Creator  for  the  character 
of  his  acts. 

God  created  intelligent  beings  who  could 
sm,  but  established  no  chain  of  causes  to  pro- 
duce sin.  Therefore,  it  is  false  to  say  that 
God  caused  sin.  It  will  not  do  to  say  that 
as  God  caused  the  sun  and  the  sun  light,  so 
He  caused  man  and  man  sin.  The  cases  are 
not  at  all  analogous  ;  for  the  sun  is  not  free, 
and  therefore,  not  an  originating  cause,  but 


38     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

merely  a  link  in  a  chain  of  causes.  Man,  on1 
the  contrary,  being  free,  is  an  originating 
cause.  His  actions  are  his  own,  for  the  reason 
that  they  can  not  be  referred  to  any  thing  be- 
yond him  as  giving  direction  to  them.  They 
originate  in  his  freedom. 

SECTION    VII. 

Origin  of  Sin. 

We  have  now  discovered  the  origin  of 
sin.  Much  has  been  said  and  much  written, 
to  the  infinite  perplexity  of  good  men,  on  this 
subject.  I  have  little  to  add.  In  the  volition 
of  intelligent  free  agents  sin  originated. 
Many  questions  may  be  put  as  to  the  circum- 
stances under  which  the  first  sin  was  com- 
mitted, but  the  most  complete  knowledge  of 
all  the  facts  could  not  affect  the  matter.  It 
will  but  serve  to  confuse  our  minds  to  ask 
what  caused  the  first  sinner  to  sin.  There 
may  have  been  something  that  occasioned 
it,  but  he  alone  caused  it,  and  the  infamous 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     39 

distinction  of  originating  sin  must  be  his 
forever. 

Any  particular  seed  will  produce,  by  a  vital 
necessity,  a  particular  species  of  plant,  so 
that  the  seed  does  not  originally  cause  the 
peculiar  nature  of  the  plant,  but  that  cause 
must  be  found  in  something  that  went  before 
and  endowed  the  seed  with  the  special  func- 
tions that  should  produce  just  that  plant. 
Not  so  with  the  free  mind.  It  was  endowed 
with  no  function  to  necessitate  the  production 
of  evil  purposes  and  actions.  It  produces 
them  of  its  own  suggestion.  It  originates 
the  movemen-t. 

We  must  not  forget  what  has  already  been 
stated,  that  sin  is  an  act,  and  a  mental  quality 
resulting  from  an  act.  It  is  not  a  thing 
made,  but  an  act  done.  "  Sin  is  the  trans- 
gression of  the  law."  The  law  is  God's,  the 
transgression  is  man's. 

The  more  we  look  any  where  else  for  the 
"  origin  of  sin"  the  more  perplexity  will  we 
find. 


40  MAN — FREE,    FALLEN,   REDEEMED. 

SECTION    VIII. 

Liability  to  Sin  a  Necessary  Incident  to  the 
,       Human  Constitution. 

Man  must  have  been  made  essentially  dif- 
ferent— so  that  he  would  have  been  some- 
thing else  and  not  man  really  —  to  preclude 
the  possibility  of  sin.  He  must  have  been 
constituted  an  involuntary  being. 

In  that  case  there  could  have  been  no 
moral  government.  Physical  necessity  must 
have  been  the  only  law.  There  could  have 
been  no  sin  certainly — no  more  could  there 
have  been  virtue.  Under  such  a  constitution 
there  could  be  no  disobedience  —  nor  could 
there  be  obedience  in  the  proper  sense  of  the 
term.  There  could  be  only  forces  and  their 
results. 

Is  such  a  condition  compatible  with  the 
existence  of  spiritual  essences  ?  Is  not 
spontaneity  of  action  essential  to  spiritual 
being  ?  It  does  seem  so  to  me. 

This  is  true  of  the  Divine  Essence.     But 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     41 

in  Him  this  spontaneity  is  in  no  danger  of 
coming  into  conflict  with  the  law,  because  He 
is  the  source  of  the  law.  His  volition  is  the 
law.  In  subordinate  beings,  on  the  contrary, 
spontaneity  has  for  a  necessary  incident  the 
possibility  of  conflict  with  the  supreme  will, 
which  is  the  law.  For  the  law  is  not  sub- 
jective in  them,  i.s  in  God,  but  objective  to 
them.  Therefore  it  is  possible,  and  must  be 
so,  inasmuch  as  they  are  free,  for  them  to 
assume  at  will  any  attitude  toward  it.  They 
may  obey  or  not.  There  is  nothing  in  them 
to  necessitate  the  one  more  than  the  other  of 
these  results. 

In  the  unf alien  man,  no  doubt,  the  tone  of 
the  affections  and  appetites  was  favorable  to 
obedience,  and  had  he  been  true  to  himself  he 
would  have  been  faithful  to  his  Creator. 
But  the  desire  for  knowledge — not  in  itself 
wrong — was  made  the  ground  of  temptation. 
Knowledge  seemed  to  lie  in  the  direction  of 
disobedience.  Here  were  contending  motives, 


42     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

and  so  a  demand  for  the  exercise  of  choice. 
On  neither  side  did  the  motives  amount  to 
compulsion.  The  man  was  free.  He  could 
conform  to  the  healthy  tone  of  his  own  af- 
fections, or  he  could  do  violence  to  this  normal 
state  of  the  heart,  by  enthroning  over  it  the 
desire  of  knowledge.  This  he  did. 

It  is  to  creatures  endowed  with  this  self- 
impelling  capacity  that  moral  government  is 
adapted.  Physical  laws  are  not  adjusted  to 
them.  Force,  and  the  inevitable  effect  of 
force,  are  the  essence  of  this  class  of  laws. 
They  are  never  disobeyed.  Their  supremacy 
is  in  the  single  fact  of  force.  Moral  law,  on 
the  other  hand,  addresses  a  free  person, 
through  motives,  and  may  be  resisted.  Its 
supremacy  is  secured  by  a  final  resort  to 
penalties.  These  penalties  are  of  the  nature 
of  physical  laws,  for  their  administration 
proceeds  by  mere  force.  But  when  a  soul 
comes  under  this  mechanical  dispensation 
violence  is  done  to  its  very  nature,  and  the 


43 

dreadful  compulsory  state  to  which  it  is  re- 
duced is  called  death. 

The  mind  perceives,  intuitively,  that  moral 
law  belongs  to  a  sphere  infinitely  higher  than 
physical  law.  The  one  is  a  government  of 
persons,  the  other  of  things.  In  moral  gov- 
ernment there  are  justice,  authority,  protec- 
tion, reward,  addressing  an  intelligent  being 
capable  of  responding  to  these  high  facts.  In 
physical  government  there  is  just  simply  power 
on  one  side  and  passivity  on  the  other.  The 
reciprocation  in  the  one  case  is  between  Di- 
vine authority  and  intelligent  volition  —  in 
the  other  between  power  and  its  object. 

Where  there  is  moral  law,  then,  there  must 
be  intelligent,  free  subjects.  In  other  words, 
there  must  be  persons.  Man  must  be  what  he 
is.  He  must  be  FREE.  The  corollary  of  this 
is,  he  must  be  capable  of  sinning.  This  is 
as  inevitable  as  mathematical  truth,  and  it  is 
pure  folly  to  say  that  God  could  ordain  it 
otherwise.  It  is  affirming  that  of  power  which 


44     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

is  not  in  its  nature.  The  very  existence  of 
moral  government,  then,  and  of  creatures  capa- 
ble of  this  sort  of  government,  involves  the 
possibility  of  sin. 

To  avoid  the  possibility  of  sin,  the  Creator 
must  be  ruled  down  to  the  production  of  such 
creatures  as  are  legitimately  governed  by  mere 
force.  There  must  be  none  created  of  that 
high  order  that  can  recognize  and  freely  re- 
spond to  revelations  of  justice,  trath,  love, 
mercy  and  authority.  The  universe  must  be 
stripped  of  all  its  divinest  and  most  precious 
meaning. 

If  any  should  say  that  the  moral  attributes 
of  God  might  be  so  displayed  as  to  address 
the  soul  with  such  power  as  would  enforce 
obedience — that  such  motives  might  be  sup- 
plied as  would  be  an  effectual  guard  against 
temptations  to  sin,  I  reply — 

1.  Any  enforcement  of  obedience  brings 
us  back  to  the  reign  of  physical  law—mere 
force.  It  makes  the  soul  act  in  a  mere  me- 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     45 

chanical  way.  But  we  have  seen  that  spon- 
taneity is  an  inherent  quality  of  spiritual  es- 
sences. This  is  an  averment  of  our  deepest 
consciousness.  We  have  also  seen  that  an 
act  can  have  no  moral  character  except  it  be 
voluntary.  No  matter  what  the  method  of 
enforcement  be,  whether  by  the  agency  of  ir- 
resistible motives  or  otherwise,  the  very  fact 
of  enforcement  destroys  the  voluntariness  of 
an  act,  and,  as  a  consequence,  leaves  in  it  no 
moral  quality  whatever. 

2.  Yet  it  is  true  that  where  the  motives  in 
any  case  are  fully  understood,  and  all  on  one 
eide,    the   mind  does  almost  always  choose 
conformably  with  the  motive. 

3.  God's  moral  attributes  can  be  revealed 
to  man  only  in  words  or  works.      In  both 
methods  God  did  reveal  himself   to  the  first 
man  in  such  a  manner  as  to  supply  motives  of 
the  right  sort,  and  I  can  not  doubt  that  the 
manifestation  God  made  of  His  attributes  was 
as  full  as  it  was  possible  to  make  it  in  the 


46     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

works  of  creation  and  Providence,  and  also  in 
a  revelation  by  the  means  of  language.  The 
occasion  of  a  more  touching  expression  of  His 
character  did  not  then  exist. 

4.  Man's  sin  furnished  that  occasion. 
The  atonement  is  just  that  highest  expression 
of   God  which   furnishes    motives   the  mos.t 
effectual  that  can  be  presented  to  intelligent 
creatures.     I  shall  enquire  hereafter  what  may 
be  hoped  for  from  these  motives. 

5.  The  very  elements  of  his  spiritual  nature 
supplied  the  occasion  of  temptation.     It  could 
not  have  been  otherwise.     The  opportunity  to 
gain  knowledge  before  one  so  constituted  was 
a  strong  enticement.     The  motive  was  a  pow- 
erful one,  and  to  have  been  secure  from  that 
motive  he  must  have  been  created  something 
less  than  man.     Now,  here  is  the  condition  of 
choice— motives  on  each  side.     From  the  very 
fact  of  his  freedom,  it  is  in  his  power  to  choose 
either. 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     47 

The  creation  of  spiritual  beings,  then,  ren- 
dered the  possibility  of  sin  inevitable. 

And  may  we  not  say,  that  if  the  work  of 
creation  had  stopped  short  of  this  great  act-- 
the  production  of  spiritual  essences-- there 
would  have  been  no  end  reached  that  we  can 
conceive  of  as  being  worthy  of  the  creative 
intelligence  ?  The  material  universe,  with  all 
its  beauty  and  grandeur,  has  no  significance 
until  you  contemplate  it  as  the  theatre  of  in- 
telligent life.  The  mind  can  not  rest  upon 
anything  short  of  this,  as  the  object  which 
God  proposed  to  himself  in  His  great  work. 

SECTION    IX. 

How  Supremacy  is  Maintained  in  Moral 
Government. 

Does  not  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  in  moral 
government,  put  the  authority  of  the  ruler  in 
peril  ?  It  does  not ;  for  sovereignty  main- 
tains itself  in  the  last  resort  by  Power.  The 
offender,  proving  himself  unworthy  of  a  gov- 
ernment of  motives,  is  degraded  to  the  level 


48     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED 

of  physical  control,  and  the  supreme  authority 
secures  itself  by  the  infliction  of  penalties. 
Authority  may  be  resisted  in  the  first  instance, 
but  it  falls  back  upon  Power  for  the  effectual 
assertion  and  vindication  of  itself.  "  The 
soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die."  It  shall  be 
placed  under  a  regime  that  disregards  its 
freeness,  violates  its  spontaneity,  and  domi- 
nates it  by  mere  force.  Thus  is  violence  done 
to  its  highest  and  most  essential  nature,  and 
BO  it  suffers  death. 

This  is  the  bound  set  to  the  freedom  of  the 
creature- -the  barrier  which  secures  the  throne 
of  God  against  the  rebellion  of  His  subjects, 
—the  safeguard  of  the  universe  against  An- 
archy. 

That  is  a  very  unworthy  view  of  the  Divine 
Sovereignty  which  represents  it  as  being  un- 
able to  maintain  itself  otherwise  than  by  eter- 
nal decrees,  putting  the  course  of  events  and 
actions  in  grooves  from  the  beginning.  God 
is  not  so  nicely  and  ticklishly  poised  upon 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     49 

His  throne  that  He  must  dread  to  be  jostled 
by  the  hostile  act  of  free  creatures.  He  has 
resources  of  power  and  wisdom  to  provide 
against  every  emergency.  It  is  His  preroga- 
tive to  interfere  with  the  freedom  of  His 
creatures  at  any  point  where  He  may  see  it 
necessary.  He  will  not  sufler  the  peace  of  the 
universe  to  be  broken  with  impunity.  Those 
who  despise  His  authority  will  find  that  they 
are  "  rushing  upon  the  thick  bosses  of  His 
buckler." 

Civil  governments  proceed  upon  the  same 
method.  The  State  does  not  compel  obedi- 
ence, but  checks  crime  with  a  strong  hand. 
It  utters  its  will,  sets  the  motives  of  good  citi- 
zenship before  the  subject ;  but  beyond  this  it 
does  not  proceed  until  the  criminal  act  is  com- 
mitted. Till  then  the  citizen  is  free— free  to 
commit  that  act.  Then  comes  coercion.  The 
aid  of  force  is  called  in  in  the  interest  of  the 
law. 

So  is  man  free  under  the  Divine  Govern- 


50     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

ment— free  even  to  commit  sin--to  disregard 
the  supremacy  of  God.  But  if  he  will  not  duly 
reverence  that  supremacy  as  a  free  agent,  he 
must  bow  under  its  last  assertion  in  the  depri- 
vation of  his  liberty. 

It  is  a  dreadful  alternative  for  a  being  of 
the  essence  of  whose  nature  is  the  attribute  of 
freedom.  It  touches  and  blights  his  very  life. 
It  violates  his  nature.  But  it  is  the  only  expe- 
dient by  which  the  Sovereign  can  maintain 
himself  and  secure  the  interests  of  moral  gov- 
ernment. 

SECTION  x. 
Inherited    Depravity . 

This  whole  matter  is  greatly  complicated  by 
the  fact  of  inherited  evil.  Not  only  pain,  and 
sorrow,  and  misfortune  come  to  us  irresistibly, 
but  there  is  also  a  deplorable  tendency  to  moral 
evil  inherent  in  the  spiritual  constitution.  It 
is,  in  fact,  more  than  a  mere  tendency  to  evil. 
Evil  itself  is  inwrought  into  our  very  being  as 
we  come  into  the  world. 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     51 

It  is  extremely  difficult  to  state  precisely 
(what  this  inherent  depravity- -this  "  original 
sin"--consists  of.  In  general  terms,  it  is 
alienation  from  God.  The  whole  mind,  and 
heart  go  after  earthly  things.  God  is  not 
loved.  The  creature  is  set  above  the  Creator. 

This  is  the  natural  condition  of  man  since 
the  fall,  and  if  he  were  left  in  this  condition, 
we  may  admit  that  he  would  not  be  free  in 
regard  to  matters  of  religion.  The  will  would 
be  impotent.  For  there  seems  to  be  a  sort  of 
spiritual  paralysis— a  want  of  power  even  to 
perceive  or  desire  that  which  is  holy.  Spirit- 
ual motives  take  slight  effect  upon  the  mind. 

Man  is  in  an  abnormal,  morbid  condition, 
spiritually.  A  malignant  disorder  of  the  soul 
has  possession  of  him.  He  is  full  of  "  wounds, 
bruises  and  putrifying  sores." 

Every  descendant  of  the  first  man  is  in  this 
condition.  It  is  the  fruit  of  the  first  sin.  In 
committing  that  act  of  disobedience,  Adam  was 
the  representative  of  his  race.  A  sinful  act, 


52     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

as  I  have  before  said,  induces  a  sinful  state. 
And  so  intimate,  is  this  state—so  thoroughly 
does  it  inhere  in  our  nature— that  it  is  trans- 
mitted from  father  to  son.  It  comes  to  us 
through  the  representative  relation  of  our  first 
father  to  his  posterity. 

But  we  have  asserted  the  separate  personal- 
ity and  responsibility  of  each  individual.  How 
does  this  consist  with  the  hypothesis  that  one 
man  representatively  involves  the  whole  race 
in  such  (Jreadf ul  evil  ?  Is  not  my  personality 
sunk  in  my  relation  to  this  representative 
man? 

It  might  be  legitimate  here  to  appeal  to  that 
ultimate  arbiter — consciousness.  I  am  con- 
scious of  my  separate,  individual  relation  to 
law. 

Yet,  also,  am  I  strangely  and  most  inti- 
mately related  to  other  persons,  and  in  a  way 
that  affects  deeply  both  character  and  well- 
being.  In  the  matter  of  property,  of  educa- 
tion, and  to  a  very  large  extent  of  character 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     53 

also,  the  child  is  greatly  dependent  upon  the 
parent  or  guardian.  The  condition  of  a  whole 
nation  is  determined  by  the  character  of  its 
rulers  and  representative  men.  If  they  foster 
industry,  commerce,  education  and  virtue,  the 
people  will  be  prosperous  and  happy ;  and  in- 
dividual development  will  correspond  to  the 
influences  brought  to  bear.  A  man  born  and 
reared  among  savages  must,  per  force,  be  a 


In  short,  the  mental,  moral  and  physical 
condition  of  a  man  are  largely  influenced  by 
his  relations  with  other  men. 

The  hypothesis  of  a  representative  relation- 
ship between  men  is,  then,  in  keeping  with 
our  observation  o*f  facts.  The  principle,  out 
of  which  the  fact  grows,  may  lie  somewhat 
deeper  than  we  are  well  prepared  to  fathom. 
Still  that  it  is  a  fact  no  one  can  deny.  And 
in  the  light  of  this  fact  it  seems  eminently 
reasonable  that  the  first  man — the  parent  of 
the  race — should  stand  in  a  vitally  represen- 


54     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

tative  relation  to  the  rest.     "  By  one  man  sin 
entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin." 

But  what  becomes  of  personal  responsibil- 
ity in  view  of  this  fact  ?  In  answer  to  tUs  I 
remark — 

1.  With  respect  to  the  condition  resulting 
from  OITT  relations  generally,  there  remains 
large  room  for  individual  liberty.  The  savage 
must,  from  his  surroundings,  be  a  savage  of 
necessity.  But  it  is  within  the  scope  of  his 
own  liberty  to  be  a  very  good  savage,  or  a 
very  bad,  or  an  average  one.  He  can  not  but 
take  on  the  general  type  of  the  life  in  the 
midst  of  which  he  is  developed,  but  there  is 
large  variety  of  individual  life  under  the  type. 
With  respect  to  the  law  that  comes  to  him  he 
is  free. 

So  with  all  men.  Within  the  limit  of  cir- 
cumstantial restraint  there  is  always  more  or 
less  scope  for  free  choice  and  action.  So  far 
as  sheer  circumstances  mould  a  man,  he  is  not 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     55 

accountable ;  so  far  as  there  is  spontaneity,  he 
is  accountable. 

2.  With  respect  to  our  depraved  condition, 
as  it  results  from  our  connection  with  the  first 
transgressor,  and  the  spiritual  impotency  for 
good  therefrom  resulting,  I  have  several  things 
to  say. 

First.  Our  Creator  has  provided  a  second 
Adam,  whose  representative  relation  to  us 
places  us  on  a  footing  as  advantageous  as  if 
we  had  never  been  involved  in  the  fall. 

Secondly.  The  gracious  influences  of  the 
cross  so  far  countervail  our  depraved  propen- 
sities as  to  make  repentance  and  salvation 
possible  to  every  man. 

Thirdly.  I  can  not  suppose  that  the  human 
family  would  have  been  permitted  to  multiply 
under  the  fatal  influences  of  the  fall  but  for  the 
counteracting  agencies  of  the  redemption. 

Thus  even  fallen  man  is  graciously  endowed 
with  the  capacity  to  act  for  himself  in  respect 
to  the  claims  of  the  Divine  Government,  and 


56     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

those  claims,  through  the  Gospel,  have  been 
adjusted  to  his  condition.  Hence,  all  are 
without  excuse,  and  u  every  one  of  us  must 
give  account  of  himself  to  God."  And  herein 
is  the  force  of  our  Savior's  upbraiding  accusa- 
tion :  "  Ye  will  not  come  to  me  that  ye  might 
have  life." 

The  result  of  all  which  is,  that  though  the 
matter  is  complicated  in  the  details  of  it  by 
the  fallen  condition  of  man,  in  the  end  the 
result  is  just  the  same,  so  far  as  his  freedom 
is  concerned.  The  disabilities  of  the  fall  are 
so  far  counteracted  as  that  man  acts  freely  in 
accepting  or  rejecting  salvation. 

SECTION    XI. 

Th  e    Ato  nement . 

Our  investigation  has  brought  us  quite  up 
to  the  stupendous  fact  of  the  ^Atonement, 
which  is,  I  verily  believe,  the  key  of  all  the 
mysteries  which  cluster  about  the  existence  of 
evil.  We  have  seen  that  by  virtue  of  it  free- 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     57 

dom  remains  to  man  in  his  depraved  condi- 
tion. Beyond  this  it  discloses  a  glorious  fact 
in  a  new  and  most  affecting  manner.  That 
fact  is-  GOD'S  LOVE  TO  His  CREATURES. 

"God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His 
only  begotten  Son."  Behold  the  gift!  It 
at  once  declares  the  fact,  and  gives  the  meas- 
ure of  the  love  of  God.  "  He  gave  His  only 
begotten  Son"- -gave  Him  to  us,  and  for  us  ! 
In  this  the  Christian  revelation  outdoes,  im- 
measurably, all  the  suggestions  of^  natural 
religion.  The  mind  that  receives  the  grand 
fact  of  Redemption  can  never  deeply  question 
the  beneficence  of  the  Creator.  He  can  not 
regard  the  Deity  as  a  Malign  Power.  There 
may  be  much  in  the  divine  administration  that 
has  a  sinister  seeming,  and  that  he  can  not 
fully  understand.  But  this  resplendent  exhi- 
bition of  love  overcomes  all  such  perplexities. 
In  its  light  he  can  rejoice,  and  shout  "God  is 
love"  in  the  face  of  every  contradiction. 

But  the  Redemption  is  not  completed.  Man 


58     MAN— FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

is  not  saved  by  a  mere  act  of  beneficent  power. 
Being  free,  he  must  himself  respond  to  the 
saving  agencies.  The  Atonement  is  complete ; 
but  the  ministries  of  grace  set  on  foot  by  its 
means  are  in  the  midst  of  their  work,  and 
human  activities  must  co-operate  with  the 
Divine  in  order  to  the  great  result.  The  good 
and  evil  are  in  their  death-struggle.  The  facts 
arising  under  this  state  of  things  are  very  com- 
plex. No  wonder  if  there  should  be  much  that 
neither  you  nor  I  can  comprehend.  In  this 
there  is  nothing  to  discredit  faith- -there  is 
only  scope  for  its  exercise.  If  you  discard 
the  Atonement  you  still  have  the  same  un- 
happy facts  to  account  for  ;  and,  in  that  case, 
you  have  nothing  to  help  you  in  the  solution. 
But  to  the  Christian  the  Atonement  is  a  great 
sun  rising  upon  this  darkness.  God  did  create 
man  liable  to  evil--He  could  do  no  otherwise 
if  He  created  such  a  being  as  man.  Man  did 
actually  fall  into  evil- -but  in  that  sad  state 
God  pursues  him  with  infinite  loving  pity. 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     59 

His  Son  becomes  incarnate  for  our  redemp- 
tion. 

I  do  not  claim  that,  up  to  this  point,  we 
have  any  help  from  the  atonement  in  the  solu- 
tion of  the  dark  questions  of  our  existence, 
beyond  these  two  facts. 

1.  That  it  clears  the  Divine  administration 
of  all  blame  in  connection  with  the  depraved 
condition  of  man.     It  furnishes  an  ample  rem- 
edy against  the  evils  of  the  fall. 

2.  It  is  a  glorious  disclosure  of  the  fact  that 
God  is  love. 

And  consequent  upon  these  two  facts  is  this 
proposition:  That  the  Christian  theory  of 
the  fall  and  the  redemption,  furnishes* 
beyond  all  comparison  the  most  satisfac- 
tory solution  of  the  existence  of  evil  that 
has  ever  been  submitted  to  the  mind  of 
men. 

But  I  am  anticipating.  The  meaning  of 
the  Atonement  will  be  more  amply  considered 
in  another  chapter. 


60  MAN — FREE,   FALLEN,    REDEEMED. 

• 

SECTION    XII. 

Js  it  well  that  Man  was  Made  ? 

Man  was  created  with  those  sublime  endow- 
ments which  necessarily  involved  the  possibil- 
ity of  sin—and  the  catastrophe  followed !  The 
fearful  possibility  has  become  a  fact. 

And  now,  in  the  midst  of  his  sin  and  sorrow, 
man  will  call  in  question  the  work  of  his 
Maker- -he  will  ask,  "  Is  it  best  that  I  was 
created,  and  that  my  race  is  in  existence  ?" 

To  a  mind  already  embittered  and  angry 
against  God  and  his  work,  and  disposed  to 
cavil,  it  may  be  impossible  to  make  an  answer 
that  will  be  acceptable.  Those  there  are  who, 
in  their  wretchedness,  and  shame,  and  guilt, 
feel  that  to  them,  at  least,  life  is  no  boon. 
They  have  been  beaten  back  and  baffled  in  all 
their  proudest  aspirations,  and  blinded  by  self- 
ish vanity  and  lust,  so  that  life  is  only  a  mis- 
erable disappointment.  There  are  some  of 
whom  our  Savior  said,  "  it  had  been  better  for 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     61 

them  if  they  had  not  been  born."  They  have 
attempted  to  accomplish  life's  end  by  thwart- 
ing God's  methods.  To  them  in  their  discom- 
fiture—in  the  agony  of  defeat  and  overthrow- 
in  their  perverse  determination  to  fight  it  out 
against  God--it  may  never  become  apparent 
that  "He  doeth  all  things  well." 

But  to  such  as  may  have  gone  with  us  in 
the  investigation  up  to  this  point,  and  are  in- 
genuously disposed  to  accredit  God's  plans, 
the  following  conclusions  will  be  apparent : 

1.  Life  becomes  a  curse  to  no  man  but  by 
his  own.  fault. 

2.  God  has»made  an  infinite  outlay  of  mer- 
cies to  forestall  our  self-destruction.     He  has 
given  his  Son  to  redeem  us. 

3.  Life,  in  intelligent  intercourse  with  the 
Creator,  and  realizing  the  destiny  to  which  He 
invites  us,  is  a  glorious  thing.     It  is  worth 
while  to  exist,  even  amid  the.  hazards  of  temp- 
tation, with  these  grand  opportunities. 

4.  Theemiseries  of  those  who  trifle  with  life's 


62     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

sacred  hopes-  are  no  good  ground  of  fault- 
finding with-  the  creative  work,  so  fraught  with 
potential  good  for  all,  and  actual  good  for 
many— life  on  so  high  a  level  as  to  recognize 
and  rejoice  in  the  Infinite  Life—life  sunning 
itself  in  the  Infinite  Light. 

5.  After  all,  the  mere  fact  that  the  world 
has  been  created,  is  sufficient  proof  that  it  was 
right  and  wise.      There  can  be  no  satisfying 
view  of  God  short  of  this,  that  every  attribute 
of  essential  being  has  its  ultimate  expression 
in  Him.  In  Him,  then,  is  the  ultimate  wisdom 
and  the  ultimate  love.      The  end  of  all  right- 
thinking  in  this  direction  is,   that  God's  work 
is  right,  and  that  we  need  no  better  evidence 
of  the  fact  that  it  is  right  than  the  mere  fact 
that  it  is  His  work.     It  is  our  wisdom. to  ac- 
cept our  own  existence  wi<"h  gratitude,  and  to 
strive  after  the  high  ends  proposed  to  us  by 
the  Creator. 

6.  But  God  can  not  be  displeased  when  we 
reverently  inquire  into  His  methods.     He  is 


MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED.     63 

glorified  in  our  understanding,  so  far  as  we 
grasp  His  plans  and  appreciate  Himself. 

SECTION    XIII. 

Speculation  within  due  Limits,  right. 

The  speculations  upon  which  I  propose  to 
enter  in  the  next  chapter  are  designed  to  ascer- 
tain, if  possible,  something  with  respect  to 
God's  purposes  and  dispositions  as  they  appear 
in  the  Atonement.  I  trust  I  shall  not  be  over 
bold.  The  Bible  contains  the  only  positive 
formula  of  truth  in  religious  matters.  All 
speculation  must  check  itself  at  the  point 
where  it  threatens  to  come  into  collision  with 
that  Book.  If  a  man's  reason  conducts  him 
to  the  clearest  conviction  of  the  inspired  char- 
acter of  the  Bible,  it  must  be  the  standard  of 
Divine  truth  for  him  ever  after.  This  is  my 
case.  The  claims  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  have 
been  fully  admitted  in  my  prof oundest  thought, 
and  have  become,  therefore,  the  basis  of  Faith. 


64     MAN — FREE,  FALLEN,  REDEEMED. 

What  I  have  ventured  to  propose  in  the  follow- 
ing pages  keeps  this  fact  in  full  view. 

But  I  can  not  allow  that  my  theory  is  mere 
speculation.  There  seems  to  me  to  be  some 
positive  intimation  of  it  in  the  Scriptures.  I 
claim  not  only  that  it  does  not  clash  with  any 
truth  of  Revelation,  but  that,  if  not  positively 
set  forth,  it  is  at  least  strongly  suggested  in 
the  Word  of  God. 

The  principal  thought  in  my  theory  is  not 
original  with  me,  though  I  have  never  seen  any 
discussion,  nor  even  an  elaborate  statement  of 
it.  I  simply  offer  my  reflections,  confident  that 
whatever  of  good  sense  and  truth  may  be  in 
them  will  be  accepted  and  valued  by  candid 
men. 


CHAPTER  III. 

&tmmmt—  Its  flfcfwt  — Sfw 
of  its 


SECTION    I. 

The  Atonement  primarily  Designed  for  Man. 

We  have  seen  that  God,  in  the  last  resort, 
maintains  His  authority  by  force.  But  in  the 
case  of  Man,  He  has  provided  also  another 
method — one  which  contemplates  the  pardon 
of  sin.  The  Son  of  God  became  incarnate 
that  He  might  be  the  Reconciler.  Our  sin 
was  laid  on  Him.  He  suffered  our  penalty. 
Upon  this  basis  pardon  is  offered  to  all  men. 
And  it  is  only  upon  the  final  rejection  of 
Christ  that  any  man  is  made  to  suffer  the  con- 
sequences of  his  own  sin.  The  Atonement  is 
a  supreme  effort  of  love  to  bring  lost  men  back 


66  THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT  ] 

to  their  true  relations  with  God.  But  there  is 
no  coercion  in  it.  Men  may  refuse  this 
method,  and  then  nothing  remains  but  their 
subjugation.  If  they  will  not  be  reconciled, 
they  must  be  subjugated. 

The  Atonement  is  set  over  against  the  fall. 
It  stands  upon  the  representative  "principle. 
The  first  man  sins.  If  he  shall  suffer  the  full 
consequences  of  this  act,  he  can  have  no  pos- 
terity. The  effect  will  begin  and  end  in  him- 
self. But  God  introduces  the  Atonement. 
The  penalty  is  suspended.  Children  are  born. 
The  human  race  is  multiplied. 

We  can  not  doubt  that  this  multiplication 
of  men,  under  a  fallen  condition,  stands  in 
immediate  connection  with  the  Atonement. 
God  would  not  have  suffered  a  single  man  to 
take  existence  under  such  disabilities  if  He 
had  not  provided  the  remedy.  The  first  rep- 
resentative personage  involves  us — the  second 
extricates. 

I  doubt  not  that  man  is  the  only  being  ac- 


THE  EXTENT   OP  ITS  RESULTS.  67 

tually  redeemed  by  the  death  of  Christ.  In 
our  nature  He  became  subject  to  the  law — 
for  us  He  died.  It  is  man  alone  that  is  thus 
saved  from  sin. 

But  may  there  not  be  an  indirect  result  of 
the  atonement  wider  than  this  ? 

SECTION    II. 

Conservative  Effect  of  the  Atonement. 

May  we  not  safely  say  that  it  is  as  impor- 
tant to  prevent  sin  as  to  rescue  the  sinner 
after  the  fact  of  his  guilt  ?  And  may  it  not 
be  one  office  of  the  Atonement  to  forestall  re- 
bellion in  those  regions  where  it  has  never 
occurred  ?  Perhaps  upon  examining  the  his- 
tory and  character  of  this  great  Act  in  the 
f  * 

government  of  God,  we  may  discover  that  it 

is  as  perfectly  adapted  to  this  object  as  to  the 
more  direct  one  of  saving  those  already  in- 
volved in  guilt.  Nothing  strikes  or  gratifies 
the  intelligent  Christian  more  than  this  fact : 
that  the  Plan  of  Salvation  is  exactly  contrived 


68  THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT  J 

to  meet  all  the  emergencies  and  guard  all  the 
interests  connected  with  man's  redemption. 
He  discovers  that  the  act  of  pardon  betrays 
no  weakness — that  it  is  not  the  result  of  a 
mere  amiable  attention  to  the  miseries  of  the 
sinner  while  other  vital  interests  are  forgotten. 
It  is  not  a  mere  loose  administration  of  clem- 
ency, that  may  overlook  the  safeguards  of  exe- 
cutive authority  and  allow  crime  to  "  run  riot" 
in  the  universe.  The  heavy  hand  is  not  re- 
moved. Sin  is  not  treated  as  a  trivial  thing. 
The  death  penalty  is  not,  in  a  single  instance, 
set  aside.  So  deeply  is  this  true  that  even  the 
Son  of  God  himself,  when  he  undertook  to  save 
man  from  his  sins,  could  accomplish  it  only  by 
dying  in  his  place.  No  one  who  understands 
'this  great  fact  can  ever  doubt  the  fidelity  of 
God  to  those  immutable  principles  which  must 
be  inviolate  in  order  to  a  perfect,  or  even  safe, 
administration  of  government.  If  our  faith  in 
the  ultimate  Justice  and  the  ultimate  Truth, 
as  they  have  their  expression  in  the  ultimate 


THE   EX'TENT   OF  ITS   RESULTS.  69 

Existence,  could  once  be  shaken,  then  there 
could  remain  for  us  no  ground  of  faith  what- 
ever. Or  if  in  the  ultimate  Existence,  which 
is  God,  there  could  be  shown  to  be  short- 
coming, and  it  could  be  demonstrated  that 
Truth  and  Justice  are  not  ultimate  (that  is, 
absolute)  in  Him,  then  the  last  guarantee  of 
good  government  would  be  swept  away,  and 
the  last  hope  of  intelligent  creatures  for  safety 
by  means  of  an  administration,  which  should 
be  an  immutable  protection  against  evil,  must 
perish. 

Against  this  the  Atonement  gives  assur- 
ance. Even  the  Son  of  God,  when  he  as- 
sumes our  sin,  must  "  taste  death."  Not 
even  He  could  stand  in  the  sinner's  place 
without  touching  the  sinner's  doom.  Not 
HIS  case  even  could  be  made  exempt.  Then 

Justice  in  God  is  ultimate,  and  the  universe 

• 

is  safe.  Right  and  wrong  can  never  be  con- 
founded in  the  Divine  Administration.  "  God 
can  be  just  and  the  justifier  of  him  that  be- 


70         THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 
lieveth"  in  Jesus.     "Justice  itself  can  jus- 
tify the  unjust"   through  the  intercession  of 
the  immaculate   Sufferer.     Sin  may  be  par- 
doned in  them  for  whom  the  substitute  died. 

Now,  if  we  should  discover  in  the  death  of 
Christ  an  equal  adaptation  to  the  prevention 
of  sin  amongst  those  who  have  never  fallen, 
will  it  not  enhance,  in  our  eyes,  the  glory  of 
the  Divine  Administration?  "God  so  loved 
the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  What  if 
it  should  appear  that  that  same  supreme  ex- 
pression of  love  that  has  our  world  for  its  first 
object,  is  too  full  and  ample  to  be  confined 
within  this  limit  and  overflows  upon  the  uni- 
verse ?  What  if  it  turns  out  that  this  agency 
of  redemption  for  us  is  a  conservative  agency 
for  all  those  intelligent  creatures  who  have 
never  sinned,  and  that  the  universe  is  to  be 
held  in  its  allegiance  to  God  by  this  means  ? 

It  is  certainly,  at  least,  not  impossible  that 


THE   EXTENT   OF   ITS   RESULTS.  71 

the  life  and  death  of  the  "  Man  of  Soirows" 
have  all  this  meaning.  The  supposition  is 
not  absurd.  It  may  be  true.  The  waves  of 
infinite  love,  agitated  by  the  death-pain  of 
Jesus,  may  wash  all  the  shores  of  eternity 
and  of  being.  The  mind  throbs  and  glows 
with  joy  in  contemplating  it  as  a  mere  possi- 
bility. 

SECTION    III. 

Community  of  Intelligent  Natures.    N 

There  seems  to  be  a  community  of  all  in- 
telligent natures,  which  favors  the  supposi- 
tion, that  any  event  of  vital  interest  to  one 
class  must  have  some  meaning  for  all.  It  can 
scarcely  be  doubted  that  there  is  this  commu- 
nity of  nature.  All  are  constituted  upon  one 
model.  There  may  be  many  modifications, 
but  in  the  essential  elements  of  their  nature 
all  intelligent  creatures  are  certainly  alike. 
The  intellectual,  afiectional  and  volitional  at- 
tributes are,  I  doubt  not,  essentially  the  same 


72  THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT; 

in  all.  The  intercourse  of  angels  with  men, 
as  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures,  indicates  this. 
Whatever  accidental  differences  there  may  be 
between  them  and  men,  the  basis  of  conscious 
life  is  the  same.  Understanding,  reason, 
memory,  love,  gratitude,  adoration,  joy,  sym- 
pathy, repugnance,  volition,  enter  into  angelic 

life. 

"  Men  are  allied 
To  angels  on  the  better  side." 

And  those  superior  beings  recognize  the  rela- 
tionship. They  interest  themselves  in  us  in  the 
most  hearty  manner.  The  scripture  account 
of  their  ministry  on  the  earth  clearly  indicates 
this. 

They  are  subjects  of  the  same  government. 
Incidental  differences  of  administration,  adap- 
ted to  the  different  circumstances  of  the  case, 
do  not  interfere  with  the  essential  unity  of  the 
Divine  Government.  There  can  be  no  reason- 
able doubt  that  the  decalogue  is  essentially 
the  constitution  of  the  moral  government  of 
the  whole  universe.  To  love  God  supremely 


THE   EXTENT   OF   ITS   RESULTS.  73 

and  his  fellow  as  himself,  is  the  standard  of 
right  for  every  intelligent  creature.  The  mani- 
festation of  this  in  obedience  to  God  and  in 
affectionate  services  rendered  to  fellow  crea- 
tures constitutes  right  living  in  heaven  as  well 
as  on  earth.  Some  variation  of  specific  law 
necessarily  arises  out  of  the  variety  of  condi- 
tion and  circumstances  in  the  cage  of  different 
classes  of  beings.  But  the  essential  princi- 
ples of  the  law  are  the  same  for  all,  Because 
the  nature  of  all  is  essentially  the  same. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  at  all  unreasonable  that 
any  great  event  in  the  government  of  God 
should  have  some  bearing  upon  the  interests 
of  its  subjects  in  every  part  of  it.  And  the 
incarnation  of  the  Son — God  infleshing  him- 
self— lowering  himself  to  the  human  and  rais- 
ing the  human  to  himself,  must  certainly  be 
regarded  as  an  event  of  the  very  first  rank  in 
the  history  of  His  government.  The  more  so 
as  this  event  is  the  central  fact  of  a  great  de- 
parture from' the  ordinary  course  of  govern- 


74  THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT ; 

ment.  The  Divine  administration  of  the  af- 
fairs of  our  world  is  exceptional  and  anomal- 
ous. Sin  is  not  met  by  the  prompt  enforce- 
ment of  the  penalty.  Crime  has  apparent 
impunity.  Good  and  evil  trench  upon  each 
other,  and  are  mingled  in  the  most  grotesque 
and  revolting  manner.  Wrong  is  often  tri- 
umphant and  regnant.  It  seems  certain  that 
God  has  alwKys  heretofore  maintained  the 
same  well-defined  separation  of  the  good  and 
evil  in  fact  as  distinguishes  them  in  principle. 
This  anomalous  state  of  affairs  is  a  neces- 
sary incident  of  the  redeeming  agencies 
appointed  for  the  salvation  of  man.  But  so 
grave  an  irregularity — so  vital  a  departure 
from  the  ordinary  course  of  law,  must  stand 
in  connection  with  some  grand  purpose  of  the 
Creator.  And  it  can  certainly  be  no  matter 
of  surprise  if  we  discover  that  this  purpose 
contemplates  a  result  beyond  the  destiny  of 
one  world.  Indeed,  we  should  rather  expect 
to  find  it  a  central  fact,  reaching  in  its 


THE   EXTENT   OF   ITS   RESULTS.  75 

effect  the  utmost  limit  of  being  in  space  and 
duration. 

SECTION    IV. 

Angelic  Interest  in  the  Work  of  Christ. 

"  The  angels  desire  to  look  into  these 
things."  This  can  scarcely  be  the  mere  in- 
terest of  curiosity,  and  it  may  involve  some- 
thing more  than  sympathy.  It  might  be  the 
interest  of  holy  natures  in  this  strangest  and 
most  touching  manifestation  of  God,  and  it 
might  also  include  a  direct  personal  interest 
of  their  own  in  the  whole  matter.  It  is  clearly 
implied  that  there  is  in  the  advent  and  suffer- 
ings of  Christ  somewhat  more  than  they  com- 
prehend. There  are  depths  they  have-not 
fathomed.  Long  before  they  witnessed  the 
Birth  in  Bethlehem  and  shouted  over  it,  "  glory 
to  God  in  the  highest,"  they  had  been  em- 
ployed as  messengers  to  men  to  prepare  them 
for  the  great  event.  But  it  seems  that  not 
only  the  prophets,  but  the  angels  even, 


76  THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT  J 

"  knew  not"  the  high  import  of  the  prophecy. 
They  knew  God  was  preparing  some  great  work, 
and  quivered  with  speechless  joy  upon  each 
new  development  in  connection  with  it,  until 
in  the  manger  they  saw  the  wonder  of  the  uni- 
verse and  raised  the  shout,  whose  echoes  are 
still  mingling  with  "  the  music  of  the  spheres." 
They  hung  upon  his  steps  and  watched  Him 
until  they  laid  their  loving  wings  about  Him 
in  the  Agony ,  and  hovered  in  the  air,  astoun- 
ded spectators  of  the  Cross.  They  certainly 
knew  what  was  the  immediate  purpose  of  all 
this — the  redemption  of  man  ;  but  connected 
with  it  there  wers — and  this  they  knew — 
things  they  had  never  seen.  There  were  dis- 
coveries yet  to  be  made.  Was  there  some 
perception  of  the  fact  that  their  own  destiny 
stood  in  some  way  connected  with  the  Cross  ? 
One  of  them  "  rolled  the  stone  away"  from 
the  sepulchre,  and  pointed  the  women  to  the 
empty  tomb.  "  Behold  the  place  where  they 
laid  Him."  The  heavenly  host  received  Him 


THE   EXTENT   OF   ITS   RESULTS.  77 

when  he  ascended  up,  and  welcomed  Him  as 
a  conqueror.  "  Lift  up  your  heads  ye  gates, 
and  be  ye  lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors,  that 
the  King  of  Glory  may  come  in."  And>  so 
"  the  Lord,  the  Lord  mighty  in  battle,"  was 
received  from  the  bloody  field  just  won,  and 
crowned  and  throned  with  the  adoration  of 
celestial  Princedoms. 

,  In  the  visions  of  Patmos  how  incessantly 
angels  come  and  go  and  work  amid  the  agen- 
cies of  redemption.  And  in  the  last  day  it  is 
a  mighty  angel,  who,  with  one  foot  upon  the 
earth  and  one  upon  the  sea,  lifts  his  right 
hand  to  heaven  and  swears  by  Him  that  liveth 
forever  and  ever  that  time  shall  be  no  longer. 
The  final  blast  of  the  trump  of  God  shall  be 
sounded  by  an  angel.  "  All  the  angels  of 
God"  shall  accompany  Christ  when  He  comes 
to  wind  up  the  affairs  of  His  government  on 
earth,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  Judgment  scene 
"  the  angels  shall  come  forth  and  sever  the 
wicked  from  among  the  just." 


78         THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 

From  this  intimate  connection  of  angels 
with  the  history  of  the  Atonement  from  first 
to  last  I  raise  a  presumption — and  claim  for 
it  only  the  value  of  a  presumption— that  they 
are  in  some  way  personally  involved  in  its 
results. 

SECTION    V. 

History    of    Sin. 

Fully  in  keeping  with  the  theory  of  the 
community  of  nature  and  interest  among  all 
intelligent  creatures,  set  forth  in  a  preceding 
section,  is  the  fact  that  sin  was  introduced 
into  our  world  by  the  agency  of  a  being  of 
another  class- -the  devil.  Not  only  do  good 
angels  interest  themselves  in  man's  case,  but 
malignant  angels,  also,  do  the  same,  with  a 
very  different  feeling,  ho  doubt ;  but  still  the 
fact  of  interest  manifested  by  them,  though 
it  be  an  evil  interest,  betrays  a  species  of 
community.  There  must  evidently  be  a  com 
mon  understanding  of  facts  between  them, 


THE   EXTENT   OP  ITS   RESULTS.  79 

and  a  common  appreciation  of  motives,  or  the 
one  could  not  have  tempted  the  other.  The 
tempter  could  otherwise  have  had  no  access 
to  mind  or  heart. 

But  the  history  of  sin  has  a  still  more  direct 
bearing  upon  the  matter  in  hand. 

It  may  be  that  we  have  not  this  dreadful 
history  in  full.  What  we  do  know  is  that, 
first,  angels  sinned,  and  secondly,  through 
their  agency  man  was  induced  to  sin. 

At  this  point  sin  became  aggressive. 
God  had  made  a  new  world,  and  .a  new  race 
of  intelligent  beings  to  inhabit  it.  A  malig- 
nant creature,  prepared  by  previous  defection 
from  God  for  such  work,  set  himself  to  the 
task  of  alienating  this  new  creature  from  the 
Creator,  and  succeeded.  Sin  became  enter- 
prising and  infectious.  Is  creative  benefi- 
cence to  be  forestalled  thus  ?  Is  the  Infinite 
Love  to  be  defeated  ? 

Just  at  this  juncture,  when  sin  becomes 
aggressive^  God  sets  up  a  standard  against 


80  THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT  J 

it.  Just  at  this  point,  where  the  tide  of  evil 
begins  to  overflow,  God  raises  a  breakwater 
for  the  protection  of  the  universe.  Just  where 
the  legions  of  the  enemy  organize  and  begin 
the  havoc  of  invasion,  the  Captain  of  Salva- 
tion meets  them. 

Is  there  no  significance  in  this  history? 
That  the  Atonement  should  come  in  just  here, 
does  that  mean  nothing  ? 

I  can  scarcely  doubt  that  the  earth  is  the 
battle  field  of  the  Universe—the  Marathon  of 
Jehovah's  Empire.  The  supreme  conflict  cul- 
minated upon  Calvary. 

Dignity  is  not  in  magnitudes,  but  in  events. 
The  earth  ranks  low  in  the  planetary  system 
in  point  of  size,  but  it  is  the  place  of  first  con- 
sequence in  the  history  of  God's  government. 
It  is  the  centre  of  universal  observation  and 
interest.  Here  transpired  the  great  event  that 
stands  first  in  dignity  and  value,  and  in  the 
extent  of  its  consequences.  Here  the  Cham- 
pion of  the  invaded  and  threatened  Universe 


THE    EXTENT    OF   ITS   RESULTS.  81 

girded  himself  and  met  the  adversary.  Here 
He  toiled,  and  fought,  and  suffered,  and  died, 
and  conquered  for  earth,  and  heaven,  and  all 
worlds.  Through  eternity,  perhaps,  visitors 
from  remotest  worlds  may  flock  to  this  point, 
never  satisfied  till  they  see  the  place  where  the 
Deliverer  suffered. 

SECTION    VI. 

How  the  Cross  affects  those  Glasses  of  Intelli- 
gent Beings  who  have  never  Sinned. 

We  have  seen  in  Chapter  II  that  the  moral 
government  is  not  one  of  force,  but  of  mo- 
tives. Nor  can  we,  for  a  moment,  receive 
that  theory  which  regards  motives  as  a  spe- 
cies of  force,  producing  effects  with  mechan- 
ical certainty,  so  that  f  when  several  motives 
are  present  the  strongest  inevitably  dominates 
the  mind.  The  presence  of  motives  is  the  con- 
dition of  voluntary  action  and  choice,  but  the 
mind  in-  choosing1  acts  freely.  Otherwise 
mental  activity  would  be  a  mere  mechanical 
operation. 


82         THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 

But  we  have  seen  also  that  while  this  free- 
dom is  an  essential  quality  of  intelligent 
natures,  and  while  they  are  not  controlled  by 
motives,  but  act  freely  with  reference  to  them, 
yet  volition  is  not  necessarily  capricious. 
The  mind,  in  its  normal  condition,  does  not 
act  blindly  and  madly  as  a  general  thing. 
The  understanding  contemplates  various  mo- 
tives, and  reason  judges  between  them  ordina- 
rily before  the  final  act  of  choice  is  reached. 
And  though  there  is  the  extreme  power  of  set- 
ting the  understanding  and  reason  aside  and 
acting  in  defiance  of  them,  yet  it  is  not  com- 
monly done.  When  a  motive  of  transcendent 
importance  is  presented,  the  action  of  the  will 
is  usually  coincident  with  the  facts  of  the  case 
—at  least  where  the  mind  is  duly  informed  and 
impressed.  Otherwise  there  could  be  no  order 
in  society.  If  volition  were  not  at  all  under 
the  check  of  reason  and  motives,  nothing 
could  be  calculated  upon  with  reference  to  its 
decisions.  In  that  case  there  could  be  no 


THE   EXTENT    OF   ITS   RESULTS.  83 

moral  government.  But  the  mind  has  in  it  a 
deep  consciousness  of  the  fact,  that  to  act 
upon  bad  or  unworthy  motives  is  a  crime 
against  itself--a  violation  of  the  laws  of  its 
own  nature.  This  is  felt  even  in  our  depraved 
condition  ;  how  much  more  fully  must  it  be 
realized  by  those  creatures  who  are  in  a  heal- 
thy spiritual  state.  For  this  reason  there  may 
be  some  estimate  made  of  the  effect  of  motives. 
We  can  calculate,  with  some  approximation  to 
truth,  upon  the  result.  Hence  a  government 
of  motives— that  is,  moral  government — be- 
comes a  possibility. 

Can  it  be  doubted  that  the  history  of  re- 
demption furnishes  motives  of  the  very  high- 
est class  to  all  intelligent  creatures  every- 
where--motives  to  love  and  obey  God  ?  These 
motives  are  such  as  could  not  have  been  brought 
out  in  any  other  way.  They  are  found  in  the 
fact  of  God's  gift  to  a  lost  world  and  in  the 
sufferings  of  Christ--the  sacrifice  of  himself, 
which  he  made  for  the  salvation  of  sinners. 


84  THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT ; 

Disclosures  of  the  Divine  nature  are  here  made 
that  could  not  otherwise  have  been  made.  The 
blood-writing  of  the  Cross  tells  us  things  of 
God  that  could  not  have  been  proclaimed  in 
another  way. 

And  these  disclosures  contain  influences  of 
the  most  potential  character,  binding  the 
creature  in  allegiance  to  the  Creator.  This  is 
not  mere  conjecture.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  a 
direct  consequence  of  all  we  know  in  reference 
to  intelligent  natures  and  the  history  of  the 
cross.  Though  we  may  not  regard  it  with  all 
the  faith  due  to  a  clearly  revealed  dogma  of 
religion,  I  must  receive  it  at  least  as  I  do  the 
most  evident  conclusions  of  philosophical  in- 
vestigation. And,  perhaps,  we  may  yet  see 
reason  to  respect  it  as  in  some  degree  justified 
by  intimations  contained  in  the  word  of  God. 


THE   EXTENT    OF   ITS   RESULTS.  85 

SECTION    VII  . 

Specific  Motives  against  Sin  Furnished  by 
the  Cross. 

The  most  effective  motives  are  those  which 
are  addressed  to  the  two  attributes  of  the 
mind  —  love  and  fear.  These  motives  are 
supplied  in  their  utmost  power  by  the  Atone- 
ment. 

Love  is  called  into  play  by  the  manifesta- 
tion of  love.  "  We  love  Him  because  He  first 
loved  us."  God's  tender  solicitude  for  His 
creatures  finds  its  highest  expression  in  the 
plan  of  salvation.  The  Infinite  Love  concen- 
trates in  the  Cross.  Rather  than  see  His 
creatures  perish  His  Son  may  die.  How 
lovingly  He  comes  down  to  man  in  the  Incar- 
nation. He  comes  voluntarily  to  our  condi- 
tion. He  identifies  Himself  with  our  sorrow. 
He  mingles  with  us  in  our  sicknesses  and 
weeps  by  the  side  of  our  graves.  He  suffers 
our  infirmities.  "  He  is  tempted  in  all  points 


86  THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT  ; 

like  as  we  are,"  and  so  is  "  touched  with  the 
feeling  of  our  infirmities."  He  is  domiciled 
amongst  us.  He  allows  Himself  to  become 
the  beneficiary  of  human  hospitalities.  He 
enters  into  all  the  tenderness  of  filial,  frater- 
nal and  social  relations.  See  Him  at  His 
home  in  Nazareth,  and  as  a  guest  of  Martha 
ana  Lazarus  at  Bethany.  He  is  even  born  of 
a  woman,  investing  Himself  with  our  nature. 
He  is  "  our  Elder  Brother." 

And  all  this  tender  history  of  condescension 
and  love  consummates  itself  in  the  death  He 
suffered  on  our  account.  He  takes  our  shame 
upon  Himself.  He  takes  our  guilt  and  death. 

"  O !  Lamb  of  God,  was  ever  pain, 
"Was  ever  love  like  thine !  " 

We  have  seen  that  there  is  a  close  commu- 
nity of  intelligent  beings  of  all  classes.  So 
this  expression  of  love  to  man  is  in  proof  of 
His  love  to  all  His  creatures.  Man's  miseries 
call  it  out,  but  Calvary  is  a  love-token  given 
to  the  whole  Universe. 


THE    EXTENT    OP   ITS   RESULTS.  87 

c<  God  is  love."  After  Calvary  has  been 
seen  in  the  midst  of  the  eternities  this  great 
fact  can  never  more  be  doubted.  L6ve  !  The 
fullness  of  the  word  is  given  in  the  outcry  of 
the  dying  Christ.  God  made  flesh,  put  to 
shame,  put  to  death,  suffering  the  unutterable, 
deathly  soul-sorrow,  is  the  supreme  utterance 
of  it.  And  this  utterance  is  not  made  to  man 
on]y,  but  to  all  intelligent  beings.  It  makes 
itself  articulate  to  the  very  outposts  of  the 
universe.  It  pours  itself  into  every  under- 
standing, and  touches  and  magnetizes  every 
heart. 

The  cross  also  speaks  to  our  fears.  It  is 
God's  final  statement  of  the  impossibility  of 
winking  at  sin.  The  declaration,  "  The  soul 
that  sinneth  it  shall  die,"  acquires  its  highest 
import  from  this  fact.  It  is  a  clear  proof 
that  sin  can  never  be  pardoned  as  a  mere  act 
of  executive  clemency.  It  shows  that  justice 
is  a  supreme  consideration  in  the  government 
of  God  —  a  consideration  so  vital  that  when 


88  THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT ; 

the  Son  places  Himself  in  the  sinner's  stead, 
even  He  must  suffer. 

We  may  well  believe  that  the  Atonement  is 
a  fact  never  to  be  repeated.  It  belongs  to 
earth  and  time.  Only  to  man,  and  that  in  his 
probationary  period,  does  it  offer  pardon. 
These  things  understood,  all  who  live  beyond 
the  limits  of  time  and  earth  will  know  that 
inevitable  ruin  waits  upon  sin.  There  canie 
no  hope  for  the  transgressor.  There  is  no  hesi- 
tation in  the  executive  power.  There  are  no 
exempt  cases. 

In  the  light  of  this  fact  every  one  who 
approaches  the  point  of  disobedience  must 
shudder  at  the  consequences.  There  can  be 
no  mistake.  The  lie  of  the  tempter,  "  ye  shall 
not  surely  die,55  is  contradicted  beforehand  — 
contradicted  with  an  emphasis  that  can  leave- 
no  doubt.  The  instinct  of  self-preservation 
will  be  aroused  and  act  with  full  vigor.  Dan- 
ger is  perceived.  Inevitable  horrors  start  up 
at  the  mere  thought  of  disobedience.  Death 


THE   EXTENT   OF  ITS   RESULTS.  89 

ambushes  the  soul.  Intelligent  self  regard  is 
on  the  alert. 

The  motive  of  fear,  then,  is  brought  into 
full  play,  and  its  value  in  guarding  the  crea- 
ture against  a  fatal  inattention  to  the  author- 
ity of  the  Creator  is  sufficiently  patent. 

Its  effect,  moreover,  will  be  augmented  by 
the  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  the  punishment 
of  sin  is  not  the  result  of  a  vindictive  temper 
in  God,  but  of  administrative  justice.  The 
Tightness  of  the  infliction  will  be  realized. 
Justice  is  one  of  the  expressions  of  love,  for 
what  is  the  Divine  Justice  but  Love  governing 
the  universe  for  the  best  ends.  The  two  are 
really  at  one.  If  the  punishmeist  of  sin  were 
the  result  of  mere  passion  in  God  it  might 
arouse  a  species  of  reckless,  resentful  opposi- 
tion in  the  creature.  But  when  it  is  seen  to 
be  the  authority  by  which  a  loving  Ruler 
guards  the  well-being  of  his  subjects  there 
can  be  no  such  effect. 

No  doubt  God  is  in  earnest  in  His  justice. 


90  THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT  \ 

Love  is  never  more  in  earnest  than  when  it 
meets  the  enemies  which  threaten  those  it  has 
in  guardianship.  The  aspect  of  a  mother  is 
terrible  to  those  who  would  destroy  her  off- 
spring. Nothing  is  more  terrible  than  love 
when  it  is  called  out  in  the  face  of  enemies  in 
the  attitude  of  defense.  Now  it  is  this,  in 
part,  at  least,  which  constitutes  the  adminis- 
trative justice  of  God.  He  sets  Himself  for 
the  defense  of  His  creatures  ;  and  if  any  of 
them  become  enemies,  and  by  violating  that 
law  which  is  ordained  for  the  peace  of  the 
universe,  introduce  disorganization  and  ruin, 
they  must  learn  that  to  them,  putting  them 
selves  in  this  malignant  attitude,  and  making 
themselves  the  instruments  of  evil  to  His  other 
creatures,  "  our  God  is  a  consuming  fire." 
They  must  meet  the  love  which  flames  into 
wrath  toward  the  adversaries  who  would  de- 
stroy the  objects  of  its  care.  In  proportion 
to  the  intenseness  of  the  love  will  be  the  fury 
with  which  it  will  repel  the  invader  and  de- 


THE   EXTENT   OP   ITS   RESULTS.  91 

stroyer.  So  we  read  of  "  the  fierceness  and 
wrath  of  Almighty  God."  It  will  be  seen 
that  justice  is  rooted  in  love,  and  so  its  threat- 
ened exercise  will  excite  no  resentment  before- 
hand to  lead  to  reckless  rebellion.  On  the 
contrary,  the  effect  must  be  most  wholesome. 
The  motive  of  self-preservation  is  addressed 
in  such  a  way  as  to  be  seconded  by  every 
noble  and  generous  impulse. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  very  same  fact 
which  contains  this  revelation  of  justice— this 
most  appalling  exhibition  of  divine  severity- 
contains  also  the  revelation  of  love.  He  who 
looks  on  the  cross  sees  both  at  once.  Both 
motives  are  appealed  to  in  full  measure  and  by 
the  same  voice.  Godhead  is  felt  in  full  force. 

Thus,  Jesus  Christ  is  the  "  Word  of  G<*1" 
— the  utterance  of  GW--especially  in  those 
two  facts,  by  which  His  government  may  be 
most  effectually  established  over  intelligent 
free  beings. 

"  Part  of  His  name  divinely  stands 
On  all  His  creatures  writ ; 


92         THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 

They  show  the  labor  of  His  hands, 

Or  impress  of  His  feet. 
But  when  we  view  His  strange  design 

To  save  rebellious  worms, 
"Where  vengeance  and  compassion  join 

In  their  divinest  forms, 
Our  thoughts  are  lost  in  reverent  awe, 

We  love  and  we  adore ; 
The  first  archangel  never  saw 

So  much  of  God  before. 
Here  the  whole  Deity  is  known, 

!Nor  dares  a  creature  guess 
"Which  of  the  glories  brightest  shone, 

The  justice  or  the  grace." 

SECTION    VIII  . 

The    Judgment    Day. 

There  is  nothing  more  definitely  stated  in 
the  Bible  than  that  God  "  hath  appointed  a 
day"  for  the  final  judgment  of  men.  And 
this  day  is  to  be  after  the  general  resurrec- 
tion. After  "  death"  delivers  up  his  captives, 
the  dead,  "small  and  great,"  shall  "stand  be- 
fore God"  to  be  "judged  according  to  the 
deeds  done  in  the  body." 

I  have  not  had  any  question  of  a  specula- 
tive character  more  frequently  put  to  me  than 


THE   EXTENT   OF   ITS   RESULTS.  98 

this  one  :  "  Why  are  not  men  judged  as  soon 
as  they  die  ?"  Probation  is  then  at  an  end. 
The  facts  in  the  case  have  all  transpired. 
Why  any  delay  ? 

Many  are  disposed  to  doubt  if  the  Scrip- 
tures on  this  point  are  to  be  taken  literally. 
An  unworthy  and  sophistical  species  of  exe- 
gesis is  resorted  to— a  species  of  exegesis  that 
would,  if  followed  out  generally,  unsettle  the 
meaning  of  all  Scripture. 

Those  who  hold  to  the  plain  statement  of 
the  New  Testament  have  given  very  sound 
reasons  for  the  fact  that  all  men  are  to  be 
judged  after  the  end  of  the  world.  The  mere 
fact  that  it  is  clearly  revealed  is  sufficient  for 
the  faith  of  true  Christians.  Yet,  if  it  can  be 
shown  that  great,  good  ends  are  to  be  attained, 
the  understanding  will  be  gratified.  In  addi- 
tion to  considerations  already  familiar  with 
those  who  have  given  any  special  attention  to 
this  subject,  I  offer  the  following  : 

The,  Judgment  Day  will  be  the  occasion 


94         TOE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 
of  bringing  out  the  facts  connected  with 
the  Atonement  in  a  manner  that  will  com- 
mand the  attention  and  impress  the  mind 
of  the  universe. 

We  know  that  "  all  the  angels"  are  to  be 
present.  So  much  is  stated  in  the  Book. 
The  Bible  does  not  inform  us  to  what  extent 
the  universe  is  populated.  But  so  far  as  it 
gives  us  any  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  in- 
telligent beings,  it  informs  us  that  they  will 
be  called  together  at  the  Judgment  of  our 
world. 

We  may  be  sure  that  some  great  end  is  to 
be  accomplished  in  this  universal  gathering  of 
the  creatures  of  God  to  witness  the  doom  of 
one  world.  And  if  the  Atonement  has  the 
wide  significance  that  I  have  supposed,  we  can 
be  at  no  loss  in  determining  what  that  end  is. 
It  is  human  character  and  destiny  that  are  im- 
mediately touched  and  affected  by  the  Atone- 
ment. And  the  processes  of  judgment  will 
bring  out  all  the  facts  bearing  upon  human 


THE   EXTENT   OP   ITS   RESULTS.  95 

character  and  destiny  under  the  Mediatorial 
administration.  Everything  that  is  obscure 
and  misunderstood  in  this  administration  will 
be  set  in  its  true  light.  Every  fact  made 
public  at  that  momentous  time  will  increase 
the  knowledge  of  God  among  His  creatures. 
"  God  is  love."  How  divinely  will  this  ap- 
pear wherever  the  Cross  is  seen  to  touch  the 
destiny  of  men.  God  is  just.  How  terribly 
evident  will  this  be  in  the  history  of  every  saved 
soul  whose  penalty  Christ  bore,  and  in  the  case 
of  every  lost  man  who  would  not  accept  the 
cross  ! 

Those  only  who  read  the  scriptures  with 
earnest  attention  get  any  adequate  impression 
of  the  solemnity  and  magnitude  of  the  last 
Judgment.  Every  circumstance  of  physical 
grandeur,  as  well  as  moral  sublimity,  will  give 
dignity  to  the  scene.  The  conflagration  of  a 
world  will  light  the  firmament.  "  The  voice 
of  the  archangel  and  the  trump  of  God"  will 
"  shake,  not  the  earth  only,  but  also  heaven," 


£6  THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 
by  its  irresistible  concussion.  What  changes 
will  take  place  beyond  those  on  the  earth,  we 
know  not.  What  limit  is  to  be  placed  upon 
the  declaration  that  the  "  heavens  shall  be 
rolled  together  like  a  scroll,"  and  that  "  there 
shall  be  new  heavens"  as  well  as  a  new  earth, 
.  we  can  not  tell.  But  evidently  the  convulsions 
and  changes  in  nature  are  to  be  such  as  will 
indicate  the  presence  of  a  most  stupendous 
event- -an  event  which  has  some  bearing  be- 
yond the  destiny  of  a  single  world. 

The  term  "  day"  does  not  limit  the  time 
which  may  be  occupied  in  the  final  investiga- 
tion of  the  earth's  affairs.  It  is  the  equiva- 
lent of  "  period,"  The  actual  length  of 
the  judgment  period  will  doubtless  be  great. 
"  Every  one  of  us  shall  give  account  of  him- 
self to  God,"  and  so  minute  will  be  the  exam- 
ination in  every  case  that  "  every  secret 
thing,"  every  thought,  as  well  as  every  word 
and  act  of  each  person  of  our  species,  will  be 
brought  to  light  and  considered.  Of  course 


THE   EXTENT   OF   ITS   RESULTS.  97 

we  are  not  so  well  acquainted  with  the  condi- 
tions of  being  in  another  world  as  to  under- 
stand what  time  will  be  required  for  this. 

No  doubt  it  will  appear  from  every  separate 
case  that  the  Infinite  Love  and  the  Infinite  Jus- 
tice hold  the  helm  pf  affairs.  And  upon  the 
adjudication  of  the  last  case,  the  full  measure 
of  testimony  will  be  before  all  creatures,  and 
the  universal  shout  will  burst  with  spontaneous 
rapture  from  every  tongue1  of  the  unf alien  and 
of  the  redeemed,  "  true  and  righteous  are  thy 
judgments,  thou  King  of  Saints."  Who  can 
imagine  the  effect  upon  every  spectator? 
Who  can  tell  the  force  of  that  grand  appeal 
to  the  best  and  strongest  motives  which  actu- 
ate moral  agents  ?  This  expression,  this 
embodied  history  of  saving  love  and  control- 
ling justice,  can  never  be  lost.  Made  public  in 
a  manner  so  imposing—so  overwhelming—it 
must  tend,  in  an  incalculable  degree,  to  estab- 
lish the  authority  of  God  amongst  His  crea- 
tures. It  is  almost  inconceivable  that  any  wit 


y«  THE  ATONEMENT;  ITS  OBJECT; 
ness  of  the  events  of  the  last  day  should  ever 
be  deceived,  as  our  first  mother  was,  and  thus 
overcome  by  temptation.  The  Cross,  all  that 
is  expressed  by  the  Cross,  will  be  impressed 
upon  the  consciousness  of  all.  The  character 
of  God,  made  apparent  in  this  supreme  utter- 
ance, must  dominate  created  mind  with  an 
attraction  and  power  little  less  than  irresistible. 

SECTION    IX. 

Will  there  be  no  more  Sin  ? 

1.  We  have  seen  that  intelligent  beings  are, 
in  their  very  constitution,  free.     Spontaneity 
of  volition  is  an  essential  quality  of   their 
nature.     They  can  not,  therefore,  be  governed 
by  foice  without  doing  them  violence. 

2.  We  have  also  seen  that  not  even  motives 
can  operate  with  mechanical  precision*  in  con- 
trolling moral  agents.    On  the  contrary,  they 
act  freely  with  respect  to  motives. 

3.  We  have  seen,  further,  that  freedom  is 
not  necessarily  capricious ;  but  that  ordinarily 


THE  EXTENT  OF  ITS  RESULTS.      99 

men  act,  in  the  common  affairs  of  life,  with 
intelligent  reference  to  the  motives  involved  in 
the  case,  so  that  it  is  in  our  power  to  calcu- 
late, with  some  reasonable  degree  of  assur- 
ance, upon  the  effect  of  motives,  and  to  fore- 
see the  course  of  conduct  men  will  pursue  in 
given  conditions. 

4.  In  view  of  these  facts,  we  very  justly 
conclude  that  when  the  History  of  Redemp- 
tion is  completed,  and  the  result  brought  out 
in  the  magnificence  of  the  Last  Day,  such  an 
appeal  will  be  made  therein  to  the  motives  of 
unfallen  intelligences  as  will  tell  with  the 
happiest  effect  upon  their  conduct  under  the 
Divine  Government.  Now  and  then  volition 
may  assert  itself  capriciously,  and  a  spirit 
give  itself  up  recklessly  to  ruin  against  the 
full  attraction  of  Godhead.  But  we  may 
well  believe  that  such  cases  will  be  rare.  For 
aught  we  know,  God  may  foresee  that  none 
will  ever  arise. 

Obedience  will  be  free.     The   capacity  to 


100  THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 
disobey  will  be  realized.  No  coercion  will 
be  felt.  Yet  the  motives  to  obedience  will  so 
overwhelmingly  outweigh  those  on  the  other 
side,  that  to  follow  the  latter  would  be  mere 
caprice.  It  would  be  an  extreme  and  violent 
assertion  of  personal  power.  We  can  scarcely 
doubt  that  obedience  to  God  will  be  uniform, 
and  that  exceptional  cases  will  rarely,  if  ever, 
occur. 

SECTION  x. 

The  /Supreme  Appeal  to. Motives  Possible  only 
Through  the  Cross. 

History  is  invaluable.  The  result  of  na- 
tional history  is  seen  in  the  national  and  indivi- 
dual life.  Family  tradition  produces  wonder- 
ful results  upon  personal  character.  The  hold 
of  a  military  leader  upon  his  men  is  never 
great  until  his  achievements  justify  their  con- 
fidence and  admiration.  The  authority  of  the 
parent  over  his  family  is  never  established 
until  it  has  a  history  of  firmness  and  love  and 
power. 


THE   EXTENT   OP   ITS   RESULTS.  101 

It  is  thus  that  the  Past  is  always  expressing 
itself,  and,  in  some  measure,  reproducing  it- 
self in  the  present, 

It  is  God's  prerogative  to  educe  good  out 
of  evil,  and  so  the  sin  of  man  has  been  the 
occasion  of  the  history  which  brings  God  into 
the  clearest  light  with  His  creatures.  The 
events  which  arise  out  of  this  condition  of  ours 
will  be  continually  exhibiting  God,  and  this 
great  Past  is  the  means  by  which  He  will 
fashion  and  exalt  the  eternal  Future.  And 
we  can  not  imagine  another  conjuncture  of 
affairs  in  which  God  could  have  uttered'  Him- 
self so  fully  and  potentially  as  He  has  done 
in  the  Atonement.  At  least  it  is  impossible 
for  me  to  think  of  any  other  state  of  facts 
which,  in  this  respect,  could  parallel  those 
connected  with  this  great  transaction. 

We  all  see,  in  common  life,  how  good  and 
evil  impinge  upon  each  other,  and  especially 
how  occasions  of  good  grow  out  of  evil.  The 
crimes  and  miseries  of  men  are  constantly 


102  THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 
calling  out  the  sublimest  examples  of  benefi- 
cent interposition  on  the  part  of  the  Christian 
philanthropist.  Yet  evil  does  not  produce  good. 
It  has  no  such  function.  It  can  produce 
nothing  but  evil.  It  only  furnishes  the  oppor- 
tunity to  the  good  that  comes  from  other 
sources.  Evil  is  of  evil,  and  good  is  of  God. 
But  God,  in  His  infinite  power,  seizes  upon 
the  combinations  that  arise  out  of  evil,  and 
by  them  works  his  own  gracious  ends.  This 
is  in  no  sense  derogatory  of  the  Divine  sover- 
eignty. On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  most  glo- 
rious expression  of  it.  He  is  Sovereign  even 
over  that  which  defies  his  law,  and  can  work 
His  own  end  by  its  means. 

So  God  makes  man's  sin  the  occasion  of 
universal  good,  by  treating  it  in  such  a  way 
as  to  make  the  noblest,  the  most  touching 
and  divine  history — a  History  which  is  full  of 
Himself,  and  by  means  of  which  He  will  be 
evermore  uttering  Himself  to  the  understand- 
ing and  heart  of  all  His  creatures  in  infinite 


THE   EXTENT   OP   ITS   RESULTS.  103 

authority  and  love.  Thus  rebellion  against 
His  government  is  made  the  very  means  of 
setting  that  government  upon  the  most  stable 
foundation. 

SECTION    XI. 

Man's  Opportunities. 

*To  all  this  it  will  be  objected  that  those 
individuals  of  the  human  race  who  are  L  st 
are,  by  this  theory,  sacrificed.  It  is  'unjust 
that  they  should  be  made  the  victims  of  a 
policy  that  looks  to  the  benefit  of  others,  no 
matter  how  great  the  benefit,  <.r  Low  numer- 
ous the  beneficiaries. 

This  sinister  view  of  the  case  is  wholly 
false.  For — 

1.  Man's  case  is  dealt  with  strictly  upon 
its  own  merits.  The  lost  man  has  ample  op- 
portunity of  salvation.  No  excuse  is  left  to 
any.  Where  sin  abounds  grace  does  much 
more  abound.  In  every  case  where  a  man  is 
lost,  it  is  but  right  that  he  should  suffer  the 
penalty  of  his  misdeeds.  The  state  of  the 


104       THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 

lost  is  but  the  culmination  of  a  wicked  life, 
which  is  inevitable  upon  the  final  rejection  of 
redeeming  mercies. 

2.  Every  man  has  a  glorious  destiny  within 
his  grasp.      And  this  is  the  fruit  of  God's 
great  love  to  him. 

3.  What  God  has  done  for  man  is  done 
for  his  benefit.     Man's  case  is  not  a  mere 
stepping-stone  to  some  other  end.     The  cross 
would  lose  its  significance,  and,  consequently, 
its  power,  if  it  only  made  a  convenience  of 
man.  The  Incarnate  Son  is  the  infinite  yearn- 
ing of  God  toward  man.     If  it  were  not  this, 
it  could  have  no  such  meaning  in  the  eyes  of 
other  beings  as  I  have  supposed. 

4.  Man   is  distinguished   above   all   other 
creatures  in  that  the  Son  took  his  nature,  and 
in  that   he   stands   in  immediate  connection 
with  the  Atonement.      If  he  is  in  the  post  of 
greatest  danger,  he  is  also  at  the  door  of  the 
highest  opportunity.      With  my  view  of  the 
case,  I  would  rather  be  a  man  than  belong  to 


THE   EXTENT   OF  ITS   RESULTS.  105 

any  other  class.  I  would  willingly  take  all 
the  risks  in  the  heat  of  the  conflict,  since  it 
brings  me  so  near  the  "  Captain  of  our  sal- 
vation." Especially  since  all  the  risks  must 
arise  from  my  individual  fault ;  for  salvation 
is  absolutely  secure  to  those  who  will  receive 
it. 

The  lost  man,  then,  has  no  place  for  fault- 
finding, except  against  himself. 

5.  It  can  make  the  matter  no  worse  for 
man  if  God  should  make  use  of  the  mercies 
primarily  designed  for  him  in  extending  His 
loving  sway  over  others.  And  if  these  re- 
sults were  in  the  scope  of  the'  Divine  vision 
from  eternity,  this  does  not  at  all  alter  the 
case.  Man's  personal  kinship  with  the  God- 
man — the  Elder  Brother — involves  possibili- 
ties for  him  that  set  the  Divine  administration 
in  reference  to  him  in  the  most  glorious  light. 
He  may  stand,  if  he  will,  in  the  inner  circle 
of  the  Divine  affections.  Redeemed  man  is 
in  the  place  of  John  at  the  supper,  leaning 


106          THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT  ; 

upon  the  very  breast  of  the  Son  of  God.  He 
feels  the  throbbing  of  Jehovah's  heart.  He 
stands  in  the  very  midst  of  the  history  of  love, 
and  is  "  part  and  parcel  "  of  it.  And  if  this 
position  involves  him  in  a  stern  and  dreadful 
contest,  the  victor's  crown  is  a  fully  compen- 
sating reward.  If  he  trifles  with  his  oppor- 
tunities, and  is  "  spendthrift  of  immortal 
wares,"  he  has  none  to  accuse  but  himself. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  among  the  oppor- 
tunities of  man  is  that  of  becoming  an  active 
participant  of  the  influences  which  are  to  con- 
serve the  interests  of  the  universe.  The  people 
of  God  are  "  workers  together  with  Christ," 
at  least  in  the  more  restricted  sphere  of  saving 
men.  Why  not,  then,  in  the  broader  one 
opening  in  the  great  future?  Who  can  tell 
what  the  coming  eternity  may  have  in  store 
for  us?  Men  are  to  "  judge  angels."  This 
may  contain  a  hint  of  higher  destinies  than 
we  have  ever  dared  to  contemplate.  .  What 
part  may  not  the  redeemed  man,  so  closely 


THE   EXTENT   OF  ITS   RESULTS.  107 

allied  to  Christ,  yet  play  in  the  affairs  of 
God's  Empire  ? 

But  it  may  be  objected  again  that  the  great 
majority  of  men  have  no  conception  of  any 
such  high  motives—that  their  character  is  be- 
ing formed  under  very  gross  influences. 

I  can  only  reply  that  responsibility  is  grad- 
uated by  a  man's  privileges  and  opportunities. 
We  may  not  now  be  able  to  unravel  the  tan- 
gled web  of  human  affairs  so  as  to  discover 
the  justice  and  propriety  of  God's  dealing 
with  each  separate  man.  We  can  expect  to 
do  no  more  than  ascertain  the  general  drift, 
and  settle  the  principles  upon  which  God  acts. 
We  know  that  He  never  requires  usury  where 
He  has  not  first  bestowed  the  principal,  and 
"  the  increase  He  expects  is  in  exact  proportion 
to  the  talents  at  first  given. 

Indeed,  it  were  sheer  perverseness  in  us  to 
doubt  that  the  "  Judge  of  all  the  earth  will 
do  right"  because  there  are  complexities  in 
our  fallen  condition  that  we  can  not  compre- 


108  THE  ATONEMENT;  ITS  OBJECT; 
hend.  When  so  many  great  facts  show  the 
absolute  Tightness  of  the  Divine  character,  we 
may  well  afford  to  distrust  our  own  capacity 
to  understand  the  intricacies  involved  in  the 
mal- adjustments  of  a  fallen  world;  and  to 
confide  in  God,  well  assured  that  every  fact 
will  ultimately  appear  as  a  witness  for  His 
glory.  He  who  gave  His  Son  to  die  for  us 
will  not  be  wanting  in  the  minor  details  of  a 
merciful  administration.  At  any  rate,  the 
general  fact  remains,  that  in  assuming  our 
nature  the  Son  exalted  and  glorified  humanity, 
and  receives  it  into  intimacy  with  Himself; 
and  we  may  well  accept  this  as  a  compensa- 
tion for  all  our  disabilities.  Further  than 
this  we  may  rest  assured  that,  to  those  who 
will  accept  it,  this  great  fact  opens  eternity 
in  the  most  advantageous  relations. 


THE  EXTENT   OP   ITS   RESULTS.  109 

SECTION  XII. 

Scripture    Intimations. 

The  Bible  was  intended  to  enlighten  man 
upon  those  matters  which  appertain  to  his  own 
condition,  duty  and  destiny.  Whatever  it  con- 
tains beyond  this  is  incidental.  We  are  not, 
therefore,  to  expect  any  positive  information 
in  respect  to  the  effect  which  the  Atonement 
may  produce  upon  the  general  affairs  of  the 
universe.  If  we  get  anything  upon  this  point 
it  must  be  in  an  occasional  and  incidental 
way. 

I  propose  'to  offer  several  scriptures  which 
seem  to  me  to  point  to  the  theory  set  forth  in 
this  chapter.  Indeed,  there  are  some  of  these 
passages  in  which  I  can  see  no  meaning  at 
all  if  these  speculations  be  not  true. 

1.  The  Son  is  the  Creator.  The  Word 
was  with  God— was  God— and  by  Him  all 
things  were  made,  and  without  Hi 71  was  not 
anything  made  that  was  made.  John  L  1,  3. 


110    THE  ATONEMENT  :  ITS  OBJECT  ; 

What  striking  formality  of  statement !  He 
created  all  things—not  this  earth  only,  but  all 
things.  The  emphasis  and  repetition  of  the 
statement  are  significant.  That  the  "  all 
things  "  is  not  limited  to  the  earth  and  what 
it  contains  is  evident  from  Col.  i.  16,  17. 
"For  by  Him  (Christ)  were  all  things  crea- 
ted that  are  in  heaven  and  that  are  in  earth, 
visible  and  invisible,  whether  they  be  thrones, 
or  dominions,  or  principalities,  or  powers :  all 
things  were  created  by  Him  arid  for  Him : 
and  He  is  before  all  things,  and  by  Him  all 
things  consist."  Let  It  be  noted--!,  that  the 
Creator  is  Christ;  2,  that  He  created  all 
things,  in  heaven  as  well  as  on  earth,  invisi- 
ble as  well  as  visible  ;  and,  3,  that  all  things 
were  made/br  Him,  indicating  direct  inter- 
est and  proprietorship  on  His  part  in  all 
these  things.  Wherever  space  is  occupied 
with  finite  being  it  is  the  work  of  the  SON. 

Perhaps  the  fact  that  the  second  Person  of 
the  Trinity  was  immediately  engaged  in  the 


THE   EXTENT   OF   ITS   RESULTS.  Ill 

work  of  Redemption  may  stand  directly  in 
connection  with  the  fact  that  He  was  the  im- 
mediate Agent  in  the  work  of  creation.  May 
we  not  safely  infer  that,  in  virtue  of  His  cre- 
ative agency,  He  stands  in  some  special  rela- 
tion to  subordinate  existences,  and  may  not 
this  account  for  the  fact  that  of  the  Persons 
of  the  Trinity  it  was  He  who  became  incar- 
nate and  assumed  the  office  of  Redeemer  ? 

And,  as  in  the  first  instance  as  Creator,  He 
stands  in  this  close  relation  to  the  whole  Uni- 
verse, is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that,  as 
Redeemer,  He  should  also  contemplate  the 
advantage  of  the  whole  ?  This  inference,  by 
itself,  may  not  have  much  value  as  an  argu- 
ment, but,  taken  in  connection  with  what  I 
have  already  presented,  and  with  what  is  to 
follow,  it  is  not  wholly  unimportant. 

2.  In  further  confirmation  J  offer  the  fact 
of  the  universality  of  the  Dominion  of 
Christ.  "All  power  is  given  unto  me  in 
heaven  and  in  earth."Mat.  xxviii,  18.  God 


112  THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 
the  Father,  when  He  raised  Christ  from  the 
dead,  "  set  Him  at  His  own  right  hand  in  the 
heavenly  places,  far  above  all  principality,  and 
power,  and  might,  and  dominion,  and  every 
name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world, 
but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come :  and  hath  put 
all  things  under  His  feet,  and  gave  Him  to  be 
the  head  over  all  things  to  the  Church,  which 
is  His  body,  the  fullness  of  Him  that  filleth 
all  in  all."  Eph.  i.  20,  23.  In  reference  to 
these  passages  I  remark— 1.  That  it  is  not 
only  the  Son,  but  the  Son  in  His  Mediato- 
rial character—-^  Messiah— that  has  all 
power,  and  is  Head  over  all  things.  2.  That 
in  His  Mediatorial  office  His  dominion  is 
universal— not  confined  to  the  earth.  3.  That 
while  this  unlimited  sway  is  given  to  Him  for 
the  Church,  it  implies  a  close  relationship 
between  the  Church  and  all  other  subjects  of 
His  authority.  4.  It  justifies  the  supposition 
that  all  the  other  subjects  of  His  dominion 
have  an  interest  in  Him  as  their  Messiah.  For 


THE   EXTENT   OF   ITS  RESULTS.  113 

though  His  Kingdom  contemplates  as  its  first 
object  the  Church,  we  can  scarcely  understand 
why  it  should  be  extended  over  all  creatures 
if  the  only  advantage  from  it  were  confined 
to  man. 

3.  u  God,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  for  His 
great  love  wherewith  He  loved  us,  even  when 
we  we  were  dead  in  sins,  hath  quickened  us 
together  with  Christ  (by  grace  ye  are  saved), 
and  hath  raised  us  up  together,  and  made  us 
sit  together  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus; 
that  in  the  ages  to  come  He  might  show  the 
exceeding  riches  of  His  grace  in  His  kindness 
toward  us  through  Christ  Jesus."  Eph.  ii.  4,7. 
"  Unto  me  who  am  less  than  the  least  of  all 
saints  is  this  grace  given,  that  I  should  preach 
among  the  Gentiles  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ,  and  to  make  all  men  see  what  is  the 
fellowship  of  the  mystery,  which,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world,  hath  been  hid  in  God, 
who  created  all  things  by  Jesus  Christ;  to 
the  intent  that  now  unto  the  principalities 


114       THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT, 
and  powers  in  heavenly  places  might  be  known 
by  the  Church,  the  manifold  wisdom  of  Gfod." 
Eph.  iii.  8,  10. 

(1)  These  are  remarkable  passages.      I 
have  never  seen  the  word  riches  in  any  posi- 
tion where  it  meant  so  much  as  it  does  here. 
"The  riches  of  His   grace—the  riches   of 
Christ."     Parallel  to  this  is  the  phrase  "  The- 
manifold  wisdom  of  God."      Thought  hesi- 
tates in  the  presence  of   these   expressions. 
They  intimate  a  truth  that  spurns  the  bounda- 
ries of  definition.     I  can  think  of  but  one 
single  word  that  is  fit  foi  service  in  this  con- 
nection— unutterable ! 

(2)  These  riches—this  manifold  wisdom-- 
are contained  in  the  Church.     The  Son  of 
God  humbling   himself   in   the   incarnation, 
suffering  among  men,   giving  himself  up~to 
death  fur  men,  rendering  mercy  triumphant, 
and  in  the  same  act  vindicating  justice,  thus 
establishing  the  Church  and  saving  and  glori- 
fying men- -these  facts—this  work  of  God— 


THE   EXTENT   OF   ITS   RESULTS.  115 

this  divine  history  is  the  treasury  of  these 
riches,  the  repository  and  exponent  of  this 
wisdom. 

(3)  The  Church  is  the  witness  of  all  this 
to  "  the  ages  to  come,"  and  to  the  "  princi- 
palities and  powers  in  heavenly  places."  It 
is  God's  last  and  highest  utterance  of  Himself. 
Grace  and  justice  in  the  manifold  wisdom  of 
their  Administration  in  the  Atonement  are 
discovered  to  be  ultimate  and  infinite  in  the 
Godhead.  In  all  the  coming  ages,  and  in  all 
the  heavenly  places,  to  the  highest  orders  of 
creatures,  and,  we  may  well  believe,  to  all 
intelligent  beings,  the  Church  is  to  make  God 
manifest  in  the  inexpressible  facts  of  its  his- 
tory. No  words  could  express  Him.  It  re- 
quired facts.  It  required  a  history.  It  re- 
quired an  incarnate  God  carrying  on  the  re- 
deeming work  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  a  living 
Church.  And  the  judgment  of  the  last  Day 
is  to  bring  them  out  in  full  disclosure  before 
all  eyes.  Thus  Jesus  Christ,  as  I  have  before 


116 

hinted,  is  "the  Word  of  God  "--the  utter- 
ance of  God. 

And  the  tones  in  which  God  pronounces 
Himself  in  the  ears  of  His  creatures  must  call 
responses  from  every  cord  of  intelligent  con- 
sciousness. His  government,  appealing  to  all 
by  its  infinite  justice,  goodness,  grace  and 
wisdom,  made  articulate  by  Christ  in  the 
Church,  will  receive  the  joyful  allegiance  of 
all,  to  the- utmost  boundaries  of  the  creation  ; 
and  the  foundations  of  the  universe  will  be 
jarred  by  the  shout,  "  Alleluia,  for  the  Lord 
God  Omnipotent  reigneth."  When  the  cap- 
stone of  the  Temple  of  Redemption  is  laid,  it 
will  be  brought  forth  with  shoutings--"  grace, 
grace  unto  it."  A  jubilant  Universe  will  bind 
itself  in  eternal  fealty  to  God.  Everywhere 
it  will  be  felt  that  the  highest  glory  of  the 
creature  is  in  the  glory  of  the  Creator. 

4.  I  will  submit  two  other  passages  to  the 
intelligent  consideration  of  those  who  may 
read  this  book.  If  they  teach  anything  they 


THE   EXTENT   OP  ITS   RESULTS.  117 

teach  great  things.  The  first  is  Eph.  i.  10. 
"  That  in  the  dispensation  of  the  fulness  of 
times  he  might  gather  together  in  one  all 
things  iu  Christ,  both  which  are  in  heaven 
and  which  are  on  earth;  even  in  God." 
The  other  is  Col.  i.  20.  "And  having  made 
peace  through  the  blood  of  His  Cross,  by  Him 
to  reconcile  all  things  unto  himself  ;  by  Him, 
I  say,  whether  they  be  things  in  earth  or 
things  in  heaven."  In  both  these  places  Mac- 
knight  gives  in  his  translation  instead  of 
heaven,  the  heavens.  No  one,  I  presume, 
doubts  that  this  is  the  correct  translation. 
The  statement  embraces  all  worlds.  All 
things,  in  all  worlds,  are  brought  together-- 
are "  reconciled  to  God  "--by  Christ.  Pause 
for  a  moment  and  consider  the  import  of'  this 
wonderful  declaration.  Whatever  else  may 
be  in  it,  at  least  this  is,  that  Christ  is  exert- 
ing a  controlling  influence  throughout  the  en- 
tire universe.  Clearly  the  Apostle  intends  us 


118         THE    ATONEMENT:    ITS    OBJECT; 

to  receive  the  words,  "all  things,"  without 
any  limitation  of  space. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  term  "  recon- 
ciled "  implies  that  those  who  are  referred  to 
are  such  only  as  had  been  alienated  from  God 
— that  any  hypothesis  of  the  manner  in  which 
unf  alien  beings  are  affected  by  the  Atonement 
does  not  meet  the  case.  In  other  words,  all 
who  are  "reconciled"  by  Christ  must  have 
been  previously  in  an  unreconciled  condition, 

I  submit  the  following  as  meeting  the  exi- 
gencies of  interpretation  in  the  case : 

Sin  became  aggressive  when  the  devil  suc- 
ceeded in  alienating  man  from  God.  A  process 
of  disorganization,  disintegration  and  aliena- 
tion from  God  was  then  initiated.  A  disturb- 
ing, alienating  influence  was  felt.  A  ten- 
dency adverse  to  God  and  His  government 
must  have  supervened  upon  the  final  success 
of  this  Satanic  diplomacy. 

The  interposition  of  Christ  put  an  effectual 
check  upon  this  course  of  things.  The  alien- 


THE  EXTENT  OF  ITS  RESULTS.     119 

influence  was  neutralized,  the  tendency 
in  that  direction  overcome.  The  universe  was 
recovered  from  this  sinister  condition.  Per- 
fect reconciliation  throughout  the  heavens  is 
the*  result.  The  government  of  God  is  better 
established  over  the  reason  and  heart  of  His 
creatures  than  it  could  otherwise  have  been. 
Alienation  is  forestalled,  and  reconciliation 
anticipates  the  fatal  result. 

This  exigesis  seems  to  me  to  be  not  unna- 
tural, and  to  meet  all  the  facts  better  than 
anj  other.  The  reconciliation  is  predicated 
of  "  all  things  in  the  heavens  "  as  well  as  on 
earth,  and  if  it  refers  only  to  such  as  were 
once  alienated,  then  all  things,  even  the  an- 
gels, must  have  been  at  some  time  aliens  from 
God.  But  we  know  this  is  not  so,  for  many 
of  them  have  "kept  their  first  estate."  I 
can  scarcely  see  how  the  truth  of  the  exposi- 
tion I  have  given  can  be  doubted. 

The  government  of  God  binds  the  Universe 
together  in  love  and  peace.  The  great  and 


120  THE  ATONEMENT;  ITS  OBJECT; 
central  commandment  is  Love,  This  is  the 
harmonizing  principle.  It  holds  all  things  to- 
gether. Sin  disintegrates.  It  is  the  self  as- 
serting itself  against  all  things,  and  so  is  a 
disorganizing  agency.  Every  distinct  person- 
ality asserts  itself  against  every  other.  Here 
is  disruption.  Christ  comes  to  restore  love. 
He  arrests  the  disturbing  tendency  by  intensi- 
fying the  divine  attraction.  He  is  the  mag- 
net, charged  to  the  last  degree  with  love  and 
sorrow,  and  all  unfallen  natures  respond  to 
the  supreme  attraction.  He  "gathers  together 
all  things,  both  in  the  heavens  and  in  the 
earth." 

In  other  words,  the  Atonement  is  a  conser- 
vative power  in  the  universe.  It  comtemplates 
not  only  the  salvation  of  man,  but  the  preser- 
vation of  all  worlds  from  sin. 

I  submit  that  the  two  passages  last  cited 
can  mean  nothing  less  than  this. 


THE   EXTENT   OF   ITS   RESULTS.  121 

SECTION    XIII. 

The  Word. 

God  becomes  known  to  his  creatures  through 
two  media- -His  own  Declarations  and  Acts. 
"  The  pure  in  heart  shall  see  God."  The 
precise  force  of  the  word  u  see"  in  this  place 
we  do  not  pretend  to  know.  I  have  some- 
times thought  that  we  shall  hereafter  have 
direct  perception  of  the  divine  Essence.  The 
very  substance  of  the  Uncreated  may  become 
apparent  to  the  holy.  But  even  in  that  case  the 
moral  nature  of  God  can  be  known  only  by 
what  He  says  and  what  He  performs.  Indeed, 
His  "  power  and  Godhead,"  I  suppose,  can 
not  be  otherwise  known. 

Now,  this  expression  of  the  Godhead  is 
the  office  of  the  Son,  and  for  this  reason ,  I 
doubt  not,  it  is  that  "  His  name  is  called,  The 
Word  of  God."  Rev.  xix.  13. 

I  imagine  there  are  many  who  regard  the 
Incarnation  as  the  only  Manifestation  of  God 


122  THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 
in  Christ.  This  is  a  great  mistake.  I  have 
shown,  in  Section  XII,  that  creation  and  gov- 
ernment are  both  the  work  of  Christ.  And  I 
believe  it  will  appear  that  Godhead  becomes 
active  and  productive  only  through  the  Son. 
This  is  clearly,  if  I  am  not  prodigiously  mis- 
led, the  doctrine  of  the  Scripture  upon  this 
subject.  Note  carefully  the  terms  in  which 
the  work  of  creation  is  set  forth.  "  God  cre- 
ated all  things  by  Jesus  Christ."  Eph.  iii.  9. 
"By  whom  (the  Son)  also  He  (God)  made 
the  worlds."  Heb.  i.  2.  u  But  to  us  there  is 
but  one  God,  the  Father,  OF  whom  are  all 
things,  and  we  in  Him  ;  and  one  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  BY  whom  are  all  things,  and  we  by 
Him."  1  Cor.  viii.  6.  Consider  the  force  of 
the  prepositions,  of  God,  by  Christ.  I  pre- 
tend no  explanation  of  the  relation  between 
the  Persons  of  the  Trinity.  I  deal  simply 
with  the  plain  statements  of  the  Bible.  The 
work  of  God  is  done  by  Christ. 

This  is  true  not  only  in  creation.     "By 


THE   EXTENT   OF   ITS   RESULTS.  123 

Him  (Christ)  all  things  consist."  Col.  i.  17. 
Thus  the  work  of  Providence  is  His.  We 
have  already  seen  that  the  government- -Uni- 
versal government- — " is  upon  his  shoulder." 
Redemption  is  His  work  ;  but  no  more  pecu- 
liarly than  creation,  for  in  the  one  case  GOD 
creates  BY  Christ,  and  in  the  other  "  GOD  is 
IN  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself." 
Final  judgment,  as  we  have  before  seen,  is 
in  the  hands  of  the  Son. 

God  is  Manifest  in  all  these  works— -not 
in  redemption  only.  * c  The  heavens  declare 
the  glory  of  God."  "  The  invisible  things  of 
Him  from  the  creation  of  the  world  are  clearly 
seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  that  are 
made,  even  His  eternal  power  and  Godhead." 
Rom.  i.  20.  Everything  He  does  is,  in  some 
measure,  an  expression  of  His  nature  and 
character.  But  He  does  everything  by 
Christ—- creates,  upholds,  governs,  redeems, 
judges,  through  the  Son,  who  is,  therefore, 
the  Word,  the  expression  of  the  Father. 


124          THE    ATONEMENT  :    ITS    OBJECT ; 

It  is  also  by  the  Son  that  He  "  has  spoken 
to  us."  And  if  the  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament is  the  Christ  of  the  New,  as  I  doubt 
not  He  is,  it  would  seem  that  God  has  always 
communicated  with  man  only  through  the  Son. 

I  have  said  that  God  becomes  known  to 
His  creatures  only  by  His  declarations  and 
acts.  And  indeed  we  have  no  other  method 
of  knowing  even  men.  We  can  never  tell 
what  manner  of  man  our  neighbor  is  till  we 
have  heard  his  speech  and  observed  his  con- 
duct. It  is  what  comes  out  of  him  that  dis- 
covers what  is  in  him.  The  force  that  we  see 
him  put  forth  proves  the  fact  of  his  power, 
and  the  extent  of  it. 

The  forth-going  of  God  is  through  the  Son. 
Godhead  utters  Himself  no  otherwise,  so  far 
as  we  know,  but  by  Christ ;  and  the  facts  al- 
ready given  from  the  Scriptures  seem  to  es- 
tablish that  there  is  no  exception.  Christ  Jesus 
is  the  utterance- -"outerance"-- of  God.  He  is 
the  WORD  OF  GOD.  And  this  is  not  at  all 


THE   EXTENT   OF  ITS   RESULTS.  125 

confined  to  the  Incarnation  and  redemption, 
but  holds  with  respect  to  all  the  manifesta- 
tions of  God  in  this  and  all  worlds,  to  us  and 
all  creatures. 

But  to  us  men,  and  I  hold  also  that  to  all 
His  creatures,  God  is  more  imminent  in  the 
Incarnation  than  in  any  other  fact.  He  comes 
down  nearer  to  us  and  takes  us  up  closer  to 
Him.  His  voice  becomes  more  fully  articu- 
late. A  broader  disclosure  of  Himself  is 
made.  He  exposes  Himself  to  a  deeper  in- 
sight. All  this  appears  in  preceding  Sections 
of  this  Chapter. 

Now,  can  it  be  that  The  Word  in  this  its 
last  and  most  precious  meaning  is  an  utter- 
ance to  man  alone ;  to  out  class  only  of  His 
intelligent  creatures  ?  No  !  No !  No !  It  is 
fully  articulate  to  the  remotest  places  of  His 
Empire.  Can  you  question  this  ? 

Its  meaning  and  melody  are  to  charm  all 
ears,  and  enrapture  all  hearts,  in  all  "  the 
worlds"  He  has  made,  in  all  "  the  ages  to 


126    THE  ATONEMENT  :  ITS  OBJECT ; 

come."  It  is  the  key-note  of  all  spiritual 
harmonies  in  the  heavens  as  in  the  earth. 
Worship  culminates  in  the  Song  of  the  Lamb. 
Through  the  Incarnation  GLORY  IN  THE  HIGH- 
EST is  given  to  God. 

All  the  harpers  that  praise  God  in  eternity 
will  gather  inspiration  in  their  worship  from 
the  cross—the  last,  divinest  import  of  The 
Word. 

SECTION    XIV. 

The    Consummation. 

Christ  "  shall  reign  until  He  hath  put  all 
things  under  Him,5'  and  then,  when  all  ene- 
mies are  "put  under  His  feet,"  u  when  all 
things  shall  be  subdued  unto  Him,"  "  He 
shall  deliver  up  the  Kingdom  to  God,  even  the 
Father,"  and  "The  Son  Himself  shall  be 
subject  to  Him  that  put  all  things  under  Him, 
that  God  may  be  all  in  all." 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  Mediatorial 
government  is  exceptional  and  anomalous,  It 
is  a  departure  from  the  ordinary  process  of 


THE   EXTENT   OF  ITS   RESULTS.  127 

the  Divine  Administration.  It  is  a  special 
Administration  looking  to  special  ends. 

When  these  ends  are  secured  and  the  special 
purpose  consummated,  this  administration  of 
affairs  will  cease.  Messiah's  Kingdom  will 
be  given  up  to  the  Father,  government  revert 
to  its  primary  condition,  and  God  be  all  in  all. 

Perhaps  even  then  the  government  will  be  ad- 
ministered through  the  Son,  as  Godhead  seems 
ever  hitherto  to  work  through  Him.  But  the 
Mediatorial  character  of  it  will  be  at  an  end; 
The  special  and  exceptional  character  of  it, 
ordained  for  purposes  of  pardon  and  redemp- 
tion, will  cease.  But  the  results  of  this  great 
epoch  in  the  Empire  of  God  will  not  cease. 
The  history  of  the  Reign  of  Christ- -of  Christ 
as  God-man--will  remain,  and  the  moral  effect 
of  it  be  in  full  force.  The  conflict,  and  the 
Chief  wh®  entered  upon  it  in  behalf  of  the 
Universe,  will  never jpass  out  of  mind.  "  He 
ever  liveth"  amid  the  fruits  of  his  victories, 


128       THE  ATONEMENT:  ITS  OBJECT; 
to  "  see  the  travail  of  His  soul  and  be  sat- 
isfied. " 

The -period  of  the  Redemption  will  be  the 
central  point  of  the  universal  History,  and  all 
events  will  be  seen  in  its  light.  It  will  abide 
forever  in  the  records  of  the  ages  as  God's 
brightest  manifestation  of  Himself. 

It  will  evermore  be  the  great  Heroic  Period. 
It  will  give  tone  to  the  literature  of  eternity. 
Thought  will  be  forever  evolving  fresh  phases 
of  truth  from  its  events.  Poetry  will  be  ever- 
more resorting  to  it  for  inspiration  and  for 
themes ;  and  adoration  will  kindle  itself  into 

fervor  by  perpetual  recurrence  to  its  facts. 

•»<• 

SECTION    XV. 

New    Creations. 

We  know  not  whether  the  work  of  creation 
is  at  an  end.  It  would  be  arrogant  in  us  to 
assume  to  decide  such  a  question.  Space  is 
broad  enough  and  eternity  is  long  enough  for 
God's  work.  Who  can  say  that  the  Divine 
fecundity  has  exhausted  itself  ? 


THE   EXTENT   OP   ITS   RESULTS.  129 

If  new  worlds  are  hereafter  to  be  made  ;  if, 
after  the  last  judgment,  new  races  of  intelli- 
gent beings  are  to  be  created,  there  must  be, 
we  may  suppose,  some  method  of  bringing 
them  under  the  power  of  that  influence  which 
proceeds  from  the  cross. 

May  this  not  be  a  field  of  employment  for 
redeemed  man  ?  Who  so  fit  as  they  to  become 
instructors  of  new  worlds  in  the  history  of  the 
Atonement. .  Themselves  the  immediate  ben- 
eficiaries of  the  cross,  and  spectators  of  its 
disclosures,  they  may  be  God's  best  witnesses. 
Fully  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Atone- 
ment, and  in  immediate  sympathy  with  the 
Divine  Sufferer,  they  may  be  His  most  trusted 
Missionaries.  The  immediate  kindred  of  the 
Savior,  they  must  be,  as  one  would  think, 
His  best  representatives. 

Here  are  opportunities  of  achievment  wor- 
thy of  immortal  ambition. 

Here  may  be,  in  part  at  least,  the  answer 
of  the  question,  "  What  are  to  be  the  employ-: 
ments  of  the  Redeemed  ?"  I 


CHAPTER   IV. 


The  sum  of  what  I  have  written  may  be 
stated  as  follows  : 

1.  Freedom   is   an   essential   attribute   of 
spiritual  being.     It  is  of  the  essence  of  spirit 
to  be  self-active.      It  acts  of  its  own  motion. 

2.  Freedom  necessarily  involves  the  possi- 
bility of  sin  in  created  beings,  because  the 
law  is  not  subjective  in  them  as  it  is  in  God, 
but  objective  to  them.      It  is  over  them  and 
not  in  them  as  an  essential  element  of  their 
nature.  The  law  is  the  will  of  another-God- 
and^must/  therefore,  by  necessity,  stand  in 
the  relation  of  an  object  to  them.     They  must 
act  freely  with  respect  to  it,  as  to  all  objective 
things. 

3.  The  liability  to  sin  could  have  been 
avoided  in  no  other  way  than  not  to  have 


RECAPITULATION.  131 

produced  intelligent  life.  Creation  must 
have  paused  upon*a  lower  level.  •-.  In  that  case 
God's  work  could  have  had.  no  high  import  or 
dignity. 

4.  The  government  of  free  beings  is  one  of 
motives  and  not  of  force.     Nor  can  motives 
act  as  force  to  produce  results  with  mechani- 
cal precision. 

5.  Yet  the  mind  does  not  commonly  act 
from  mere  caprice.     It  acts  with  respect  to 
motives,  and  where  motives   are  very  com- 
manding its  action  is  almost  always  co-inci- 
dent with  them- -so  much  so  that  we  calculate 
with  reasonable  certainty  upon  the  course  that 
will  be  taken  in  given  conditions.     This  is 
true  of  man,  even  in  his  fallen  condition,  in 
many  respects.  It  is  probably  more  uniformly 
the  case  with  those  who  are  in  a  normal  spir- 
itual condition. 

6.  Sin  originated  with  the  creature.      It  is 
an  act  done  and  not  a  thing  existing.     It 
is   an   act  of  free  creatures.    It  is  an  act 


132  RECAPITULATION. 

against  the  law  and  against  the  Author  of  the 
law.  The  law  is  God's,  tile  violation  is  the 
creature's.  Sin  originated  with  the  first  sin- 
ner. God  created  beings  capable  of  sponta- 
neous action.  They  sinned. 

7.  Angels  first  sinned.      Afterward  they 
instigated  man  to  sin.     Man,  sinning' under 
external  temptation,  and  the  sinning  indivi- 
dual standing  at  the  head  of  a  race,  was  re- 
deemed.   The  Atonement  was  provided.    The 
Atonement  is  a  revelation  of  God  in  a  new 
light.     It  is  the  ultimate  expression  of  His 
love  and  justice,  and  appeals  in  the  most  com- 
manding and  touching  manner  to  the  motives 
of  self-preservation  and  love  in  the  creature. 

8.  By  these  potential  motives  brought  fully 
into  play,  if  the  spread  of  sin  is  not  wholly 
prevented,   we  may  believe  it  will  be  very 
nearly,  so.     Indeed,  I  se'e  not  but  that  free 
beings  may  be  restrained,  by  this  means,  en- 
tirely from  the  violation  of  God's  law.     They 
can  sin;  otherwise  they  would  not  be  free. 


EEOAPITULATION.  138 

But,  with  these  high •  motives  to  obedience, 
when  they  are  in  full  and  universal  operation, 
may  we  not  rest  in  assured  confidence  that 
none  ever  will. 

9.  Until  there  had  beeen  a  history  of  sin 
there  could  have  been  -no  atonement—no  such 
touching  history  of  Love.     No  such   awful 
history  of  Justice  appealing  to  God's  crea- 
tures.    Sin  was  not  appointed,  nor  was  it  al- 
lowed for  this  purpose.      But  it  was  God's 
prerogative,  after  it  did  occur,  to  make  it 
the  occasion  of  this  resplendent  manifestation 
of  Himself  for  the  grand  purposes  which  we 
have  named.     And,  doubtless,  there  was  fore- 
knowledge of  all  this  before  the  work  of  cre- 
ation was  begun. 

10.  All  violators  of  the  law  are  without  ex- 
cuse. Man  certainly  has  no  right  to  complain 
in  view  of  the  opportunities  the  Atonement 
opens  to  him,  and  the  infinite  expenditure  of 
love  made  upon  him.     Of  the  history  of  the 
sinning  angels  we  know  but  little,  but  that 


134  RECAPITULATION. 

they  are  wholly  chargeable  with  their  own  sins 
we-  can  not  question.  And  it  may  be  that  in 
their  case  the  Creator  has  provided  some  com- 
pensation for  the  fact  that  they  met  their  trial 
without  the  advantage  of  the  motives  supplied 
by  the  Atonement.  We  may  be  sure  that  He 
has  done  all  for  His  creatures  of  all  classes 
that  the  nature  of  the  case  would  admit. 

11.  The  Judgment  I) ay  will  afford  a  grand 
occasion  for  publishing  the  facts  connected 
with  the  Atonement,  and  so  bringing  them  to 
bear  effectively  throughout  the  universe  as 
motives  to  obedience. 

12.  The  Scriptures  clearly  ascribe  the  peace 
of  the  Universe  to  Christ  and  His  work.    See 
the  Section  on  this  point. 

13.  Creative  beneficence  is  not  disparaged 
by  the  self-destruction  of  those  who  perish. 
That  beneficence  could  be  realized  in  no  order 
of  beings  below  the  spiritual.     Evil  was  not 
inherent  in  things,  but  the  possibility  of  its 
introduction  was  necessarily  incident  to  the 


RECAPITULATION.  135 

creation  of  beings  of  this  class.  The  product 
of  creative  Love  is  a  universe  populous  with 
free,  obedient,  intelligent,  glorious  beings. 
The  evil  which  darkens  upon  the  fair  order, 
here  and  there,  in  spite  of  all  the  safe-guards 
provided  by  the  Creator,  is  no  blot  upon  His 
love. 

14.  The  eternal  death  of  the  wicked  is  an 
awful  fact.     The  Bible  teaches  it.     It  teaches 
nothing  with  greater  distinctness  or  emphasis. 
Men  may  not  trifle  with  the  law  of  God.      In 
alienating  themselves  from  Him  they  pervert 
their  own  nature  and  cut  themselves  off  from 
the  Source  of  blessedness.      But  God  did  not 
leave  space  a  blank  from  the  foreknowledge 
that  some  of  His  creatures  would  use  their 
freedom  perversely.     Such  a  fact  was  no  just 
cause  that  countless  multitudes  should  not  ex- 
ist and  be  blessed. 

15.  The  happy  course  of  events  and  devel- 
opment in  the  spiritual  domain,  momentarily 
jostled  and  threatened  by  the  introduction  of 


136  ftECAPITULATION. 

sin,  is  restored  by  the  Deliverer  under  better 
auspices. and  with  the  surest  guarantees. 

16.  New  creations  may  be  evermore   ex- 
tending the  glorious  triumphs  of  Infinite  Love 
and  widening  the  domain  of  finite  Blessedness. 

17.  The  mystery  of  evil  is  better  solved  by 
Christianity  than  by  any  other  system. 

(1.)  It  does  not  make  light  of  evil.  It 
does  not' make  sin  a  trifle.  It  invests  the  gov- 
ernment of  God  with  infinite  sacredness.  It 
represents  guilt-as  an  awful  and  bitter  thing. 
All  this  meets  with  a  solemn  response  in  our 
own  consciousness. 

(2.)  It  invests  human  life  with  a  high  and 
solemn  significance.  We  feel  that  this  is  true. 

(3.)  It  teaches  that  every  individual  is  re- 
sponsible for  his  own  destiny.  We  see  that 
this  ought  to  be  so. 

(4.)  It  teaches  that  the  evils  which  are  in- 
herent in  our  present  condition  have  been 
brought  upon  us  by  our  representative- -the 
first  father  of  the  race- and  that  they  are  met 


RECAPITULATION.  137 

and  compensated  by  the  advantages  secured 
by  a  second  representative— Christ.  They  are 
not  the  work  of  some  horrible  fate. 

(5.)  It  reveals  God  in  Christ  in  an  infin- 
itely glorious  light.  It  discovers  in  Him  the 
infinite  Love,  and  in  virtue  of  this,  also,  the 
infinite  Justice ;  in  which  his  creatures  have 
an  equal  interest. 

(6.)  This  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  is 
made  primarily  for  man—but  ultimately,  also, 
for  all  worlds. 

This  satisfies  me.  My  heart  and  reason 
are  satisfied.  My  faith  and  hope  are  satisfied. 
The  Bible  is  true,  and  "  Godr  is  Love." 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 

Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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